Reading The Philosopher's Stone
by Melanie3356
Summary: Seven books about Harry Potter appear and Umbridge and Fudge force everyone to listen as they read them out load in the great hall.
1. Prologue

**I do NOT own Harry Potter. J. K. Rowling does!**

**Prologue**

Umbridge was pasting in her office back and forth trying to find a way to prove Harry Potter as a lying attention seeking little brat. She sighed and walked to Albus' office to talk to him about the little brat himself. When she got there she heard Minerva, Severus and Albus talking.

"We can't let this get out I may not like Potter but even he doesn't need this over shoulders." Severus said.

"Albus he has a point we can't do that to him." Minerva said.

"I know Tabby, I don't plan on it." Albus said.

Umbridge walked in and saw seven books in Albus hands. She made the books come over to her hands and everyone looked at her.

"Oh my my books about Harry Potter don't mind if I do." Umbridge said.

"We do mind." Severus growled.

"Umbridge give me those books back." Minerva hissed.

"I have higher power than the three of you so I say we are reading this books."

"You have no right the boy doesn't need this." Severus snarled.

"Oh but I do now if you will excuse me I have a meeting with Fudge."

Before the could do anything let alone get the books back she vanished to Fudge's office.

"Dolores what is it?" Fudge sighed.

"I've found a way to finally a way to prove Harry Potter as a layer and attention seeker, Dumbledore had these seven books with him the have the adventures of the brat we can prove you- know- who is gone and never to return." Umbridge said.

Fudge sat up straighter.

"This is good come we''ll go to Hogwarts to read them out load."

Fudge and Umbridge appeared in Albus' office with the books in hand.

"Dumbledore we have talked about the books and we have chosen to read them out load in the great hall." Fudge said.

"Fudge I don' t think that would be a great idea Harry doesn't' t need this over his head." Albus sighed.

"I saw we read them."

The door opened in a slam against the wall and Fred and George stood there panting.

"P-Professor M-McGonagall Harry's having a nightmare and he won't wake up please come help!"

Minerva ran out and followed the twins to Gryffindor tower, Severus ran out to help knowing the other Gryffindor students wouldn't give Minerva much room to help Harry.

We're reading this books and that's final." Umbridge spoke up.

Albus sighed and spoke his voice was coming from all over.

"Everyone please report to the great hall please."

About ten minutes later everyone was in the great hall and a few guest were even here. The Weasley family, but Percy, Mad Eye Moody, Tonks, Madam Bones, Remus with a large black dog aka Sirius and the Malfoy family.

"We will be reading the books of Harry Potter..." Umbridge said.

"WHAT NO NO NO NO! I DIDN'T TELL ANYONE ABOUT MY LIFE AND YOU JUST WANT TO READ THEM BECAUSE YOU KNOW I WILL HATE IT AND YOU JUST WANT PROF THAT I'M LYING AND AN ATTENTION SEEKER BRAT AND I AM NOT! NO NO NO WE'RE NOT READING THEM!" Harry yelled.

Everyone was shocked at his temper.

"Sorry we tried to stop it." Albus said.

Harry bent down and moved to the floor sitting by Snuffles (Sirius) Ron and Hermione sat next to him. Umbridge opened the book.

"**CHAPTER ONE - THE BOY WHO LIVED.**"


	2. The boy who lived

I do **NOT **own Harry Potter. J. K. Rowling does!

** Mr. and Mrs. Dursley, of number four, Privet Drive, were proud to say that they were perfectly normal, thank you very much.**

"Your welcome." Fred and George said in a matter of fact tone.

Everyone was shocked for those two were really laid back and so fun to be around.

**They were the last people you'd expect to be involved in anything strange or mysterious, because they just didn't hold with such nonsense.**

Harry was whispering darkly making everyone flinch bit for Albus, Minerva, Ron and Hermione, Remus and Sirius.

**Mr. Dursley was the director of a firm called Grunnings, which made drills.**

"What are drills?" A lot of the purebloods asked.

"It's a muggle tool they use to make holes." Ron answered.

"So you do pay attachion in class." Hermione teased.

**He was a big, beefy man with hardly any neck, although he did have a very large mustache**.

"Fat git." Harry mumbled.

**Mrs. Dursley was thin and blonde and had nearly twice the usual amount of neck, which came in very useful as she spent so much of her time craning over garden fences, spying on the neighbors.**

"Sounds about right." Severus mumbled so only he could hear.

** The Dursleys had a small son called Dudley and in their opinion there was no finer boy anywhere.**

The Twins, Harry, Hermione, Ginny and Ron burst out laughing.

"Are you kidding me he's after than any whale or pig." Ron laughed.

Harry laughed even harder.

**The Dursleys had everything they wanted, but they also had a secret, and their greatest fear was that somebody would discover it.**

"What secret?" Daphne asked.

** They didn't think they could bear it if anyone found out about the Potters.**

"There's nothing wrong with the Potters." Minerva and Hagrid said.

Harry smiled at his two favorite teachers.

**Mrs. Potter was Mrs. Dursley's sister, but they hadn't met for several years; in fact, Mrs. Dursley pretended she didn't have a sister**

"Pleasant." A Slytherin sneered.

**Because her sister and her good-for-nothing husband were as unDursleyish**

"Not a word." Hermione and the Ravenclaws mumbled.

**as it was possible to be. The Dursleys shuddered to think what the neighbors would say if the Potters arrived in the street.**

**The Dursleys knew that the Potters had a small son, too, but they had never even seen him. This boy was another good reason for keeping the Potters away; they didn't want Dudley mixing with a child like that.**

"Nothing wrong with Harry." Remus growled.

Nobody said anything fearing the werewolf.

**When Mr. and Mrs. Dursley woke up on the dull, gray Tuesday our story starts, there was nothing about the cloudy sky outside to suggest that strange and mysterious things would soon be happening all over the country.**

**(bold) Mr. Dursley hummed as he picked out his most boring tie for work,and Mrs. Dursley gossiped away happily as she wrestled a screaming Dudley into his high chair.**

"Brat." Draco said.

"You should talk 'My Father will hear about this!'" Ron said.

Draco blushed as Astoria giggled. Lucius looked over at Narcissa who looked at him happily.

**None of them noticed a large, tawny owl flutter past the window.**

**"**Could they be any stupider?" Draco asked.

Harry snorted.

**At half past eight, Mr. Dursley picked up his briefcase, pecked Mrs. Dursley on the cheek, and tried to kiss Dudley good-bye but missed, because Dudley was now having a tantrum and throwing his cereal at the walls. "Little tyke,"**

Ron, Hermione, Ron, Fred and George laughed.

"He's not little!" Ron laughed.

**Chortled Mr. Dursley as he left the house. He got into his car and backed out of number four's drive.**

**It was on the corner of the street that he noticed the first sign of something peculiar - a cat reading a map.**

"Tabby/McGongall/Minerva!" All but Umbridge and Fudge said.

Minerva blushed.

**For a second, Mr. Dursley didn't realize what he had seen - then he jerked his head around to look again. There was a tabby cat standing on the corner of Privet Drive, but there wasn't a map in sight. What could he have been thinking of? It must have been a trick of the light. Mr. Dursley blinked and stared at the cat. It stared back. As Mr. Dursley drove around the corner and up the road, he watched the cat in his mirror. It was now reading the sign that said Privet Drive - no, looking at the sign; cats couldn't read maps or signs.**

"Minerva can she's not an average cat you know." Severus said.

"Oh be quit you over grown bat." Minerva said as her blush grew more red.

Each one of the students laughed the Golden Trio being the loudest.

**Mr. Dursley gave himself a little shake and put the cat out of his mind. As he drove toward town he thought of nothing except a large order of drills he was hoping to get that day.**

**But on the edge of town, drills were driven out of his mind by something else. As he sat in the usual morning traffic jam, he couldn't help noticing that there seemed to be a lot of strangely dressed people about. People in cloaks.**

"The horror!" the Twins cried and fake fainted.

Everyone but Umbridge laughed.

**Mr. Dursley couldn't bear people who dressed in funny clothes - the getups you saw on young people! He supposed this was some stupid new fashion. He drummed his fingers on the steering wheel and his eyes fell on a huddle of these weirdos standing quite close by.**

"You're the weirdos." A first year said.

**They were whispering excitedly together. Mr. Dursley was enraged to see that a couple of them weren't young at all; why, that man had to be older than he was, and wearing an emerald-green cloak! The nerve of him! But then it struck Mr. Dursley that this was probably some silly stunt - these people were obviously collecting for something... yes, that would be it.**

**The traffic moved on and a few minutes later, Mr. Dursley arrived in the Grunnings parking lot, his mind back on drills.**

"One track mind." Ron whispered.

"I know." Hermione whispered.

**Mr. Dursley always sat with his back to the window in his office on the ninth floor. If he hadn't, he might have found it harder to concentrate on drills that morning. He didn't see the owls swooping past in broad daylight, though people down in the street did; they pointed and gazed open-mouthed as owl after owl sped overhead. Most of them had never seen an owl even at nighttime.**

**Mr. Dursley, however, had a perfectly normal, owl-free morning. He yelled at five different people. He made several important telephone calls and shouted a bit more. He was in a very good mood until lunchtime, when he thought he'd stretch his legs and walk across the road**

"What?" Harry asked shocked.

**To buy himself a bun from the bakery**.

"Oh ok now that's sounds right."

**He'd forgotten all about the people in cloaks until he passed a group of them next to the baker's. He eyed them angrily as he passed. He didn't know why, but they made him uneasy. This bunch were whispering excitedly, too, and he couldn't see a single collecting tin. It was on his way back past them, clutching a large doughnut in a bag, that he caught a few words of what they were saying.**

**"The Potters, that's right, that's what I heard yes, their son, Harry" Mr. Dursley stopped dead.**

"I wish." Snuffles whimpered and looked at Remus who looked at Minerva who looked at Albus who was looking at Minerva worried.

"Harry is there something you're not telling us?" Albus asked looking at Harry.

"N-no sir." Harry said thinking of the rules.

_Never tall what happens be hide close doors._

Albus looked back at Minerva who looked back at Remus who looked Snuffles who whimpered and put his head on Harry's lap.

**Fear flooded him. He looked back at the whisperers as if he wanted to say something to them, but thought better of it.**

**He dashed back across the road, hurried up to his office, snapped at his secretary not to disturb him, seized his telephone, and had almost finished dialing his home number when he changed his mind. He put the receiver back down and stroked his mustache, thinking... no, he was being stupid.**

"Being stupid is right!" Harry laughed.

**Potter wasn't such an unusual name. He was sure there were lots of people called Potter who had a son called Harry. Come to think of it, he wasn't even sure his nephew was called Harry.**

Lots of people growled.

**He'd never even seen the boy. It might have been Harvey. Or Harold. There was no point in worrying Mrs. Dursley; she always got so upset at any mention of her sister. He didn't blame her - if he'd had a sister like that...**

"Sister like what?" Severus growled shocking everyone but Remus, Minerva and Snuffles.

"You knew my Mum?" Harry asked.

"In school yes."

"Up until you fucked that up." Sirius said becoming human again.

Everyone who didn't know he was an animagus gasped.

"I said I was sorry and she forgave me afterwords!"

"Don't you dare start a fight." Remus said.

**but all the same, those people in cloaks...**

**He found it a lot harder to concentrate on drills that afternoon and when he left the building at five o'clock, he was still so worried that he walked straight into someone just outside the door.**

**"Sorry,"**

"He knows that word?" Ginny gasped.

"I'm surprised to." Harry said.

**He grunted, as the tiny old man stumbled and almost fell.**

**It was a few seconds before Mr. Dursley realized that the man was wearing a violet cloak. He didn't seem at all upset at being almost knocked to the ground. On the contrary, his face split into a wide smile and he said in a squeaky voice that made passersby stare, "Don't be sorry, my dear sir, for nothing could upset me today! Rejoice, for You-Know-Who has gone at last! Even Muggles like yourself should be celebrating, this happy, happy day!" And the old man hugged Mr. Dursley around the middle and walked off.**

"His arms fit?" Hermione cried.

**Mr. Dursley stood rooted to the spot. He had been hugged by a complete stranger. He also thought he had been called a Muggle, whatever that was. He was rattled. He hurried to his car and set off for home, hoping he was imagining things, which he had never hoped before, because he didn't approve of imagination..**

The Twins really did faint this time.

**As he pulled into the driveway of number four, the first thing he saw - and it didn't improve his mood - was the tabby cat he'd spotted that morning. It was now sitting on his garden wall. He was sure it was the same one; it had the same markings around its eyes.**

**"Shoo!" said Mr. Dursley loudly. The cat didn't move. It just gave him a stern look.**

"Not going to work!" Ginny said smiling.

Everyone but Umbridge nodded while smiling at Minerva who was blushing even redder.

**Was this normal cat behavior? Mr. Dursley wondered. Trying to pull himself together, he let himself into the house. He was still determined not to mention anything to his wife.**

**Mrs. Dursley had had a nice, normal day. She told him over dinner all about Mrs. Next Door's problems with her daughter and how Dudley had learned a new word ("Won't!").**

"Lovely." Professor Sprout said sarcastically.

**Mr. Dursley tried to act normally. When Dudley had been put to bed, he went into the living room in time to catch the last report on the evening news: "And finally, bird-watchers everywhere have reported that the nation's owls have been behaving very unusually today. Although owls normally hunt at night and are hardly ever seen in daylight, there have been hundreds of sightings of these birds flying in every direction since sunrise. Experts are unable to explain why the owls have suddenly changed their sleeping pattern." The newscaster allowed himself a grin.**

**"Most mysterious. And now, over to Jim McGuffin with the weather. Going to be any more showers of owls tonight, Jim." "Well, Ted,"**

"Dad." Tonks said as everyone looked at her.

**said the weatherman, "I don't know about that, but it's not only the owls that have been acting oddly today. Viewers as far apart as Kent, Yorkshire, and Dundee have been phoning in to tell me that instead of the rain I promised yesterday, they've had a downpour of shooting stars! Perhaps people have been celebrating Bonfire Night early - it's not until next week, folks! But I can promise a wet night tonight." Mr. Dursley sat frozen in his armchair.**

**Shooting stars all over Britain. Owls flying by daylight. Mysterious people in cloaks all over the place. And a whisper, a whisper about the Potters...**

"So starting to figure it..." Bill started.

"out the fat bastard." Charlie finished.

"Charlie language." Molly snapped.

"Sorry Mum."

**Mrs. Dursley came into the living room carrying two cups of tea. It was no good. He'd have to say something to her. He cleared his throat nervously. "Er - Petunia, dear - you haven't heard from your sister lately, have you?"**

**(Bold) As he had expected, Mrs. Dursley looked shocked and angry. After all, they normally pretended she didn't have a sister.**

"That's horrible!" Everyone who had a sister said.

"No," she said sharply. "Why?"

**"Funny stuff on the news," Mr. Dursley mumbled. "Owls... shooting stars... and there were a lot of funny-looking people in town today..."**

** "So?" snapped Mrs. Dursley.**

**"Well, I just thought... maybe... it was something to do with... you know... her crowd."**

Everyone growled.

**Mrs. Dursley sipped her tea through pursed lips. Mr. Dursley wondered whether he dared tell her he'd heard the name "Potter." He decided he didn't dare. Instead he said, as casually as he could, "Their son - he'd be about Dudley's age now, wouldn't he?"**

**"I suppose so," said Mrs. Dursley stiffly.**

**"What's his name again? Howard, isn't it?"**

**"Harry. Nasty, common name, if you ask me."**

"Its nice name, should we be grateful that she knows your name?" Ginny asked.

"Nope." Harry said popping the p.

**"Oh, yes," said Mr. Dursley, his heart sinking horribly. "Yes, I quite agree." He didn't say another word on the subject as they went upstairs to bed.**

** While Mrs. Dursley was in the bathroom, Mr. Dursley crept to the bedroom window and peered down into the front garden. The cat was still there.**

"Did you really stay there all night?" A second year asked.

"You'll see, Mr. Young." Minerva said.

**It was staring down Privet Drive as though it were waiting for something.**

**Was he imagining things? Could all this have anything to do with the Potters? If it did... if it got out that they were related to a pair of - well, he didn't think he could bear it.**

**The Dursleys got into bed.**

"Gross!" The four houses chorused.

**Mrs. Dursley fell asleep quickly but Mr. Dursley lay awake, turning it all over in his mind. His last, comforting thought before he fell asleep was that even if the Potters were involved, there was no reason for them to come near him and Mrs. Dursley. The Potters knew very well what he and Petunia thought about them and their kind... He couldn't see how he and Petunia could get mixed up in anything that might be going on - he yawned and turned over - it couldn't affect them...**

**How very wrong he was.**

"Wish he was right." Harry mumbled.

More people looked at him worriedly and than at Albus who was in deep thought.

**Mr. Dursley might have been drifting into an uneasy sleep, but the cat on the wall outside was showing no sign of sleepiness. It was sitting as still as a statue, its eyes fixed unblinkingly on the far corner of Privet Drive. It didn't so much as quiver when a car door slammed on the next street, nor when two owls swooped overhead. In fact, it was nearly midnight before the cat moved at all.**

**A man appeared on the corner the cat had been watching, appeared so suddenly and silently you'd have thought he'd just popped out of the ground. The cat's tail twitched and its eyes narrowed.**

"Someone's in trouble." The four house chorused.

Albus laughed along with everyone but Unbridge.

**Nothing like this man had ever been seen on Privet Drive. He was tall, thin, and very old, judging by the silver of his hair and beard, which were both long enough to tuck into his belt. He was wearing long robes, a purple cloak that swept the ground, and high-heeled, buckled boots.**

Lots of people grinned.

**His blue eyes were light, bright, and sparkling behind half-moon spectacles and his nose was very long and crooked, as though it had been broken at least twice. This man's name was Albus Dumbledore.**

People cheered much to Fudge and Umbrige's disgust.

**Albus Dumbledore didn't seem to realize that he had just arrived in a street where everything from his name to his boots was unwelcome**

"Oh, I really didn't care."

**He was busy rummaging in his cloak, looking for something. But he did seem to realize he was being watched, because he looked up suddenly at the cat, which was still staring at him from the other end of the street. For some reason, the sight of the cat seemed to amuse him. He chuckled and muttered, "I should have known."**

**He found what he was looking for in his inside pocket. It seemed to be a silver cigarette lighter. He flicked it open, held it up in the air, and clicked it. The nearest street lamp went out with a little pop.**

"Cool!"

**He clicked it again - the next lamp flickered into darkness. Twelve times he clicked the Put-Outer, until the only lights left on the whole street were two tiny pinpricks in the distance, which were the eyes of the cat watching him. If anyone looked out of their window now, even beady-eyed Mrs. Dursley, they wouldn't be able to see anything that was happening down on the pavement. Dumbledore slipped the Put-Outer back inside his cloak and set off down the street toward number four, where he sat down on the wall next to the cat. He didn't look at it, but after a moment he spoke to it.**

**"Fancy seeing you here, Minerva." He turned to smile at the tabby, but it had gone.**

**Instead he was smiling at a rather severe-looking woman who was wearing square glasses exactly the shape of the markings the cat had had around its eyes. She, too, was wearing a cloak, an emerald one. Her black hair was drawn into a tight bun. She looked distinctly ruffled.**

** "How did you know it was me?" she asked.**

"I know you all to well and all most everyone knows your animagus."

**"My dear, I've never seen a cat sit so stiffly." "You'd be stiff if you'd been sitting on a brick wall all day," said Professor McGonagall.**

** "All day? When you could have been celebrating? I must have passed a dozen feasts and parties on my way here." Professor McGonagall sniffed angrily.**

**"Oh yes, everyone's celebrating, all right," she said impatiently.**

**"You'd think they'd be a bit more careful, but no - even the Muggles have noticed something's going on.**

"I didn't mean anything about that by the way."

**It was on their news." She jerked her head back at the Dursleys' dark living-room window. "I heard it. Flocks of owls... shooting stars... Well, they're not completely stupid. They were bound to notice something. Shooting stars down in Kent - I'll bet that was Dedalus Diggle. He never had much sense."**

"True, but he's very funny." Lee said.

**"You can't blame them," said Dumbledore gently. "We've had precious little to celebrate for eleven years."**

** "I know that," said Professor McGonagall irritably. "But that's no reason to lose our heads. People are being downright careless, out on the streets in broad daylight, not even dressed in Muggle clothes, swapping rumors." She threw a sharp, sideways glance at Dumbledore here, as though hoping he was going to tell her something, but he didn't, so she went on. "A fine thing it would be if, on the very day You-Know-Who seems to have disappeared at last, the Muggles found out about us all. I suppose he really has gone, Dumbledore."**

** "It certainly seems so," said Dumbledore. "We have much to be thankful for. Would you care for a lemon drop?"**

"I do!" Everyone who ever been in Albus' office said.

Albus waved his hand and lemon drops went to those who wanted them.

"Thank-you!"

** "A what?"**

**"A lemon drop. They're a kind of Muggle sweet I'm rather fond of."**

** "No, thank you," said Professor McGonagall coldly, as though she didn't think this was the moment for lemon drops. "As I say, even if You-Know-Who has gone -"**

** "My dear, surely a sensible person like yourself can call him by his name. All this 'You- Know-Who' nonsense - for eleven years I have been trying to persuade people to call him by his proper name:**

Umbridge stuttered over the name.

**Voldemort."**

All but Harry, Luna, Remus, Sirius, Ron, Hermione and Dumbledore flinched.

**Professor McGonagall flinched.**

**but Dumbledore, who was un-sticking two lemon drops, seemed not to notice.**

"Sorry Tabby."

"It's alright Albus."

**"It all gets so confusing if we keep saying 'You-Know-Who.' I have never seen any reason to be frightened of saying Voldemort's name."**

** "I know you haven't, said Professor McGonagall, sounding half exasperated, half admiring. "But you're different. Everyone knows you're the only one You-Know- oh, all right, Voldemort, was frightened of."**

**"You flatter me," said Dumbledore calmly. "Voldemort had powers I will never have."**

"Only because you're too noble and kind to use them." Cho Chang said.

**"Only because you're too - well - noble to use them."**

Cho blushed saying the almost same thing as her favorite teacher.

**"It's lucky it's dark. I haven't blushed so much since your Father said we made a cute couple."**

Both Albus and Minerva both blushed remembering that night.

**Professor McGonagall blushed**

"Like she is now." Rolanda (Hooch)

"I can easily get my brother, Nick here."

Rolanda blushed.

**and said, "The owls are nothing next to the rumors that are flying around. You know what everyone's saying. About why he's disappeared. About what finally stopped him." It seemed that Professor McGonagall had reached the point she was most anxious to discuss, the real reason she had been waiting on a cold, hard wall all day, for neither as a cat nor as a woman had she fixed Dumbledore with such a piercing stare as she did now. It was plain that whatever "everyone" was saying, she was not going to believe it until Dumbledore told her it was true. Dumbledore, however, was choosing another lemon drop and did not answer.**

**"What they're saying," she pressed on, "is that last night Voldemort turned up in Godric's Hollow. He went to find the Potters. The rumor is that Lily and James Potter are - are - that they're - dead. " Dumbledore bowed his head.**

Harry started to cry and those closes to him comforted him, The all hugged him. Everyone but Umbridge put their heads down for a few minutes.

**Professor McGonagall gasped. "Lily and James... I can't believe it... I didn't want to believe it... Oh, Albus, They were like a family to me..."**

"Really?" Hermione asked.

Minerva smiled and nodded.

**Dumbledore reached out and patted her on the shoulder. "I know... I know..." he said heavily.**

**Professor McGonagall's voice trembled as she went on. "That's not all. They're saying he tried to kill the Potter's son, Little Harry. But - he couldn't. He couldn't kill that little boy. No one knows why, or how, but they're saying that when he couldn't kill Little Harry, Voldemort's power somehow broke - and that's why he's gone."**

Dumbledore nodded sadly.

** "It's - it's true." faltered Professor McGonagall. "After all he's done... all the people he's killed... he couldn't kill a little boy. It's just astounding... of all the things to stop him... but how in the name of heaven did Harry survive."**

"You know." Harry said

"If the books don't explain than I will explain it, with anyone you want to hear it."

Harry nodded.

**Professor McGonagall pulled out a lace handkerchief and dabbed at her eyes beneath her spectacles.**

**Dumbledore gave a great sniff as he took a golden watch from his pocket and examined it. It was a very odd watch. It had twelve hands but no numbers; instead, little planets were moving around the edge.**

**It must have made sense to Dumbledore, though, because he put it back in his pocket and said, "Hagrid's late. I suppose it was he who told you I'd be here, by the way."**

**"Yes," said Professor McGonagall. "And I don't suppose you're going to tell me why you're here, of all places."**

** "I've come to bring Harry to his aunt and uncle. They're the only family he has left now."**

"Me." Sirius said.

"I would if it wasn't for a um condition." Remus said.

"And he always have a home with us." Arthur and Molly said.

"Yeah Ginny would live to see more of you." Ron grinned.

"RON!" Ginny yelled blushing redder than her hair.

**"You don't mean - you can't mean the people who live here." cried Professor McGonagall, jumping to her feet and pointing at number four. "Dumbledore - you can't. I've been watching them all day. You couldn't find two people who are less like us. And they've got this son - I saw him kicking his mother all the way up the street, screaming for sweets.**

"I hope he out grow that." Minerva said.

"Nope he does it even more." Harry said.

**Harry Potter, my god son,**

Everyone but Albus, Sirius, Harry and Minerva were shocked.

"She's your god mother?" Lucius asked.

Harry nodded his head smiling at Minerva who smiled back.

"So you finally told him?" Remus asked.

"Yes." Minerva said.

"We only have one thing to say to that..." Fred and George said.

"...Lucky!" Gryffindor said.

Harry smiled while Minerva blush for the twentieth time since reading.

**come and live here!**"

"Go Professor McGonagall!"

**"It's the best place for him," said Dumbledore firmly. "His aunt and uncle will be able to explain everything to him when he's older. I've written them a letter.**"

"A letter?!" Poppy said.

**"A letter." repeated Professor McGonagall faintly, sitting back down on the wall. "Really, Albus, you think you can explain all this in a letter. These people will never understand him! He'll be famous - a legend - I wouldn't be surprised if today was known as Harry Potter day in the future**

"NO!" Harry yelled in horror.

"There will not be a Harry Potter day." Fudge said.

Harry breathed of relief and smiled hugging Sirius.

**- there will be books written about Harr**y

"And what do you know here they are." Remus growled.

"We did try to get them back Remus." Albus said.

"Whose we?"

"Minerva, Severus and myself."

"Thank-you Professor Snape." Harry said.

"You're um welcome." Severus said.

** - every child in our world will know his name!"**

"Sadly." Harry sighed.

**"Exactly," said Dumbledore, looking very seriously over the top of his half-moon glasses. "It would be enough to turn any boy's head. Famous before he can walk and talk! Famous for something he won't even remember! Can't you see how much better off he'll be, growing up away from all that until he's ready to take it."**

**Professor McGonagall opened her mouth, changed her mind, swallowed, and then said, "Yes - yes, you're right, of course. But how is the boy getting here, Dumbledore." She eyed his cloak suddenly as though she thought he might be hiding Harry underneath it.**

**"Hagrid's bringing him."**

** "You think it - wise - to trust Hagrid with something as important as this."**

"I..." Minerva said.

"It's ok Min." Hagrid smiled.

**"I would trust Hagrid with my life," said Dumbledore.**

Harry blushed.

** "I'm not saying his heart isn't in the right place," said Professor McGonagall grudgingly, "but you can't pretend he's not careless. He does tend to - what was that."**

** A low rumbling sound had broken the silence around them. It grew steadily louder as they looked up and down the street for some sign of a headlight; it swelled to a roar as they both looked up at the sky - and a huge motorcycle fell out of the air and landed on the road in front of them.**

**If the motorcycle was huge, it was nothing to the man sitting astride it. He was almost twice as tall as a normal man and at least five times as wide. He looked simply too big to be allowed, and so wild - long tangles of bushy black hair and beard hid most of his face, he had hands the size of trash can lids, and his feet in their leather boots were like baby dolphins. In his vast, muscular arms he was holding a bundle of blankets.**

** "Hagrid," said Dumbledore, sounding relieved. "At last. And where did you get that motorcycle.**"

"Me me!" Sirius said in a childish voice.

Everyone laughed.

** "Borrowed it, Professor Dumbledore, sir," said the giant, climbing carefully off the motorcycle as he spoke. "Young Sirius Black lent it to me**.

"Thanks again Sirius for that." Hagrid said.

"I'd do anything for my Pup." Sirius said.

** I've got him, sir."**

** "No problems, were there?"**

** "No, sir - house was almost destroyed, but I got him out all right before the Muggles started swarmin' around. He fell asleep as we was flyin' over Bristol."**

** Dumbledore and Professor McGonagall bent forward over the bundle of blankets. Inside, just visible, was a baby boy, fast asleep. Under a tuft of jet-black hair over his forehead they could see a curiously shaped cut, like a bolt of lightning.**

** "Is that where -." whispered Professor McGonagall.**

** "Yes," said Dumbledore. "He'll have that scar forever."**

**"Couldn't you do something about it, Albus?"**

** "Even if I could, I wouldn't. Scars can come in handy. I have one myself above my left knee that is a perfect map of the London Underground. Well - give him here, Hagrid - we'd better get this over with.**"

"I didn't mean it like that, it was hard." Albus said.

**Professor McGonagall took Harry into her arms and held him and took out a golden snitch locket**.

Harry pulled out the same locket. Everyone was looking at it.

"**This was your father's he would want you to have it, I will always love you my little Lion Cub.**"

Harry got up and ran over to Minerva and hugged her tightly. Minerva hugged back and than Harry went back to sitting back down beside his friends and family.

**Dumbledore took Harry in his arms and turned toward the Dursleys' house.**

**"Could I - could I say good-bye to him, sir." asked Hagrid. He bent his great, shaggy head over Harry and gave him what must have been a very scratchy, whiskery kiss. Then, suddenly, Hagrid let out a howl like a wounded dog**.

Sirius let out the same sound.

(Bold) "Shhh!" hissed Professor McGonagall, "you'll wake the Muggles!"

**(Bold) "S-s-sorry," sobbed Hagrid, taking out a large, spotted handkerchief and burying his face in it. "But I c-c-can't stand it - Lily an' James dead - an' poor little Harry off ter live with Muggles -"**

**(Bold) "Yes, yes, it's all very sad, but get a grip on yourself, Hagrid, or we'll be found," Professor McGonagall whispered, patting Hagrid gingerly on the arm as Dumbledore stepped over the low garden wall and walked to the front door. He laid Harry gently on the doorstep, took a letter out of his cloak, tucked it inside Harry's blankets, and then came back to the other two. For a full minute the three of them stood and looked at the little bundle; Hagrid's shoulders shook, Professor McGonagall blinked furiously, and the twinkling light that usually shone from Dumbledore's eyes seemed to have gone out**.

"Parting is always hard." Albus sighed.

"**Well," said Dumbledore finally, "that's that. We've no business staying here. We may as well go and join the celebrations."**

** "Yeah," said Hagrid in a very muffled voice, "I'll be takin' Sirius his bike back. G'night, Professor McGonagall - Professor Dumbledore, sir." Wiping his streaming eyes on his jacket sleeve, Hagrid swung himself onto the motorcycle and kicked the engine into life; with a roar it rose into the air and off into the night.**

** "I shall see you soon, I expect, Minerva?"**

** "I think I'll stay just to make sure he's ok."**

**"Good luck and no getting in trouble Tabby.**"

The teachers snorted and Minerva blushed while glaring at them.

** Minerva hit his shoulder while smiling . Dumbledore turned and walked back down the street. On the corner he stopped and took out the silver Put-Outer. He clicked it once, and twelve balls of light sped back to their street lamps so that Privet Drive glowed suddenly orange and he could make out a tabby cat slinking around the corner at the other end of the street. He could just see the bundle of blankets on the step of number four and a tabby cat laying down beside Harry**.

Minerva and Harry blushed as everyone but Umbridge and the boys (sniggered) cooed.

**"Good luck, Harry," he murmured.**

**He turned on his heel and with a swish of his cloak, he was gone.**

** A breeze ruffled the neat hedges of Privet Drive, which lay silent and tidy under the inky sky, the very last place you would expect astonishing things to happen. Harry Potter rolled over inside his blankets without waking up. One small hand closed on the letter and tabby cat beside him and he slept on**

"Aww." The females but Umbridge cooed.

** not knowing he was special, not knowing he was famous, not knowing he would be woken in a few hours' time by Mrs. Dursley's scream as she opened the front door to put out the milk bottles, nor that he would spend the next few weeks being prodded and pinched by his cousin Dudley... He couldn't know that at this very moment, people meeting in secret all over the country were holding up their glasses and saying in hushed voices: "To Harry Potter - the boy who lived!**"

"That's it whose next?" Umbridge said.


	3. The Vanishing Glass

**Sorry took so long lot's of things going on. fairygirl2468 first created the idea of Albus Dumbledore lossing his anger and making an earth quick hit the school, thanks agin fairygirl2468 for letting me use that.**

**Happy b-day Bellatrix7LilyPotter6928Curl **

I do **NOT **own Harry Potter. J. K. Rowling does!

"That's it whose next?" Umbridge said.

Tonks made the book come to her and she opened the book to the correct chapter. "**The Vanishing Glass,**"

"Can we skip this chapter?!" Harry yelled in a hurry.

Many people looked at him, woundering 'Why would he want to skip this chapter?'

"No we can not, we will read each and every chapter." Umbridge said.

Harry gulped and put his head on Sirius' shoulder.

**Nearly ten years had passed since the Dursleys had woken up to find their nephew on the front step, but Privet Drive had hardly changed at all.**

"Really nothing?" Hermione asked.

"Nothing." Harry said.

**The sun rose on the same tidy front gardens and lit up the brass number four on the Dursleys' front door; it crept into their living room, which was almost exactly the same as it had been on the night when Mr. Dursley had seen that fateful news report about the owls. Only the photographs on the mantelpiece really showed how much time had passed. Ten years ago, there had been lots of pictures of what looked like a large pink beach ball wearing different-colored bonnets**

Everyone laughed.

— **but Dudley Dursley was no longer a baby, and now the photographs showed a large blond boy riding his first bicycle, on a carousel at the fair, playing a computer game with his father, being hugged and kissed by his mother. The room held no sign at all that another boy lived in the house, too.**

"Wait you do live there right?" Collin asked.

"Yeah just wait." Harry said.

**Yet Harry Potter was still there,**

"See still there."

**asleep at the moment, but not for long. His Aunt Petunia was awake and it was her shrill voice that made the first noise of the day.**

"**Up! Get up! Now!"**

"Yep she really hasn't changed much." Severus mumbled.

**Harry woke with a start. His aunt rapped on the door again.**

"**Up!" she screeched. Harry heard her walking toward the kitchen and then the sound of the frying pan being put on the stove. He rolled onto his back and tried to remember the dream he had been having. It had been a good one. There had been a flying motorcycle in it. He had a funny feeling he'd had the same dream before.**

"I'm impressed you can remember that far back." Narcissa said.

"Thank-you, Mrs. Malfoy." Harry said.

**His aunt was back outside the door.**

"She's always like that, I remember once James, Sirius, Severus and I got stuck in a huge and I mean huge storm we ended up staying at her house and... what is you call her again Sev?" Remus said.

"Tuney." Severus said.

"Tuney would always wake us up like that."

"Really?" Harry asked looking at Severus.

"Yes and in return we put... slugs wasn't it?"

"Frogs, we put thousands of frogs in her room, she'd scream and we all laugh." Sirius chuckled.

Harry laughed along with most of the students.

"**Are you up yet?" she demanded.**

"**Nearly," said Harry.**

"**Well, get a move on, I want you to look after the bacon. And don't you dare let it burn, I want everything perfect on Duddy's birthday."**

"Duddy? Wow that's some name." Lee said.

"Oh wait they get a lot better." Harry snickered.

**Harry groaned.**

"**What did you say?" his aunt snapped through the door.**

"Stupid cow he didn't saw anything!" Ginny said.

"Ginevra." Molly said shocked.

Most looked at her funny as well but Harry laughed. Ginny blushed and smiled rubbing the back of her hair.

"**Nothing, nothing…"**

**Dudley's birthday — how could he have forgotten? Harry got slowly out of bed and started looking for socks. He found a pair under his bed and, after pulling a spider off one of them, put them on.**

Ron shivered thinking of spiders, while Fred and George high-fived.

"Boys that's nothing to be prod of." Arther said.

**Harry was used to spiders, because the cupboard under the stairs was full of them, **

"What does that have to do with anything?" Neville asked.

"You'll see." Harry said moving lower and buring his face in Sirius's shoulder.

**and that was where he slept.**

The hall was silent shocked the Boy Who Lived slept in a cupboard.

"ALBUS PERCIVAL WULFRIC BRIAN DUMBLEDORE..." Molly yelled.

The whole ground started to shack Albus' magic surrounding him and the hall shock from his magic. Everyone got under tables fast. Minerva touched his arm.

"Albus clam down!" Minerva said softly.

Albus breathed and the earth quick stopped. Everyone came out from under the tables and looked at Albus shocked.

"Sorry everyone for losing my temper, Harry you will no longer be staying with them, you can choose who to stay with." Albus said.

"Durning the summers I go to Ron's house and then we all go to Sirius'." Harry said.

"Every well, after this chapter we will be taking a break from reading, Tonks of you please continue."

**When he was dressed he went down the hall into the kitchen. The table was almost hidden beneath all Dudley's birthday presents. It looked as though Dudley had gotten the new computer he wanted, not to mention the second television and the racing bike.**

**Exactly why Dudley wanted a racing bike was a mystery to Harry, as Dudley was very fat and hated exercise — unless of course it involved punching somebody.**

"That's better not be you." Hagrid and Minerva said.

**Dudley's favourite punching bag was Harry,**

Remeus growled his eyes turning a yellowish coler growling, letting his werewolf half show.

**but he couldn't often catch him. Harry didn't look it, but he was very fast**.

"Yeah nearly can't keep up with him." Draco said trying to get Harry feeling better.

"Yeah." The other seekers said.

Harry moved his head so he was looking at Draco and smiled a tiny bit.

**Perhaps it had something to do with living in a dark cupboard, but Harry had always been small and skinny for his age.**

"James was like that too, didn't hit his grow spurt until his sixth year here." Madam Pomfrey said.

**He looked even smaller and skinnier than he really was because all he had to wear were old clothes of Dudley's, and Dudley was about four times bigger than he was. Harry had a thin face, knobby knees, black hair,**

"The potter curse has struck yet again." Remeus said ruffling Harry's hair.

"Almost he still has to fall for a certain red-head." Sirius smirking while Ron, Fred, George, Bill, Charley pointed at Ginny. Ginny blushed and moved down while everyone giggle (girls) and snickered (boys) but for Harry, who blushed, Umbridge and Fudge.

**and bright green eyes.**

"Your mother's eyes, which I'm now just noticing look like Minerva's eyes." Fudge surprisingly said.

"Really you are just relizing that about Min's eyes Fudge?" Madma Hooch asked.

"I don't see her that much, and on top of that I really don't pay attachen to her eye color when I do see her."

"I don't even see her that often either and I still knew that." Lucius said.

"Read please Tonks."

**He wore round glasses held together with a lot of Scotch tape because of all the times Dudley had punched him on the nose.**

**The only thing Harry liked about his own appearance was a very thin scar on his forehead that was shaped like a bolt of lightning.**

"You liked your scar?" Asked Luna.

"I didn't know it would start to burn as I got older." Harry said rubbing the now buring scar.

**He had had it as long as he could remember, and the first question he could ever remember asking his Aunt Petunia was how he had gotten it.**

"**In the car crash when your parents died," she had said.**

"CAR CRASH THAT'S IT!" Remus said getting yup and stroming ouit. Serverus and Sirius got up abnd ran after him.

"**And don't ask questions."**

"So that's why you never ask questions in class." All the hogwarts teachers said.

Harry nodded.

**Don't ask questions — that was the first rule for a quiet life with the Dursleys.**

**Uncle Vernon entered the kitchen as Harry was turning over the bacon.**

"**Comb your hair!" he barked, by way of a morning greeting.**

"Like that'd work, he brushes it and it messes up mall on it's own." Griffindor boys said snickering.

**About once a week, Uncle Vernon looked over the top of his newspaper and shouted that Harry needed a haircut. Harry must have had more haircuts than the rest of the boys in his class put together, but it made no difference, his hair simply grew that way — all over the place.**_._

**Harry was frying eggs by the time Dudley arrived in the kitchen with his mother.**

"You were helping right?" Molly asked.

"Er... um... y-yeah," Harry lied.

Molly sighed. _Harry you poor dear._

**Dudley looked a lot like Uncle Vernon. He had a large pink face, not much neck, small, watery blue eyes, and thick blond hair that lay smoothly on his thick, fat head.**

**Aunt Petunia often said that Dudley looked like a baby angel — Harry often said that Dudley looked like a pig in a wig.**

Everyone laughed.

**Harry put the plates of egg and bacon on the table, which was difficult as there wasn't much room. Dudley, meanwhile, was counting his presents. His face fell.**

"**Thirty-six," he said, looking up at his mother and father. "That's two less than last year."**

"Even I don't get that much, maybe five or six." The pure bloods said.

"**Darling, you haven't counted Auntie Marge's present, see, it's here under this big one from Mummy and Daddy."**

"**All right, thirty-seven then," said Dudley, going red in the face. Harry, who could see a huge Dudley tantrum coming on, began wolfing down his bacon as fast as possible in case Dudley turned the table over.**

"Funny Ron eats like that everyday." Most said.

Ron blushed and smirked.

**Aunt Petunia obviously scented danger, too, because she said quickly, "And we'll buy you another two presents while we're out today. How's that, popkin? Two more presents. Is that all right?"**

**Dudley thought for a moment. It looked like hard work. Finally he said slowly, "So I'll have thirty… thirty…"**

"Wow that's pretty sad." A seveth year said.

"Hey Draco there's your answer, they can get more stupid." Harry smirked.

I don't know more stupid them or Crabbe and Goyle." Draco said.

Everyone but Crabbe and Goyle laughed.

"**Thirty-nine, sweetums," said Aunt Petunia.**

"**Oh." Dudley sat down heavily and grabbed the nearest parcel. "All right then."**

**Uncle Vernon chuckled.**

"**Little tyke wants his money's worth, just like his father. 'Atta boy, Dudley!" He ruffled Dudley's hair.**

"Why would anyone be prode of that?!" Tonks yelled her hair turning dark red.

**At that moment the telephone rang and Aunt Petunia went to answer it while Harry and Uncle Vernon watched Dudley unwrap the racing bike, a video camera, a remote control airplane, sixteen new computer games, and a VCR.**

**He was ripping the paper off a gold wristwatch when Aunt Petunia came back from the telephone looking both angry and worried.**

"**Bad news, Vernon," she said. "Mrs. Figg's broken her leg. She can't take him."**

"His name is Harry!" Fred and George said.

**She jerked her head in Harry's direction.**

**Dudley's mouth fell open in horror, but Harry's heart gave a leap. Every year on Dudley's birthday, his parents took him and a friend out for the day, to adventure parks, hamburger restaurants, or the movies. Every year, Harry was left behind with Mrs. Figg, a mad old lady who lived two streets away. Harry hated it there. The whole house smelled of cabbage and Mrs. Figg made him look at photographs of all the cats she'd ever owned.**

"Minerva aren't you good friends with Mrs. Figg?" Professor Flitwick asked.

"Yes and trust me she doesn't hate Harry, she just had to act like that." Minerva exlained.

"**Now what?" said Aunt Petunia, looking furiously at Harry as though he'd planned this. Harry knew he ought to feel sorry that Mrs. Figg had broken her leg, but it wasn't easy when he reminded himself it would be a whole year before he had to look at Tibbles, Snowy, Mr. Paws, and Tufty again.**

"**We could phone Marge," Uncle Vernon suggested.**

Harry grinned. The minstery minis Umbridge laughed.

"Is she the one..." Ron asked smirking.

"Yep." Harry smirked.

"**Don't be silly, Vernon, she hates the boy."**

**The Dursleys often spoke about Harry like this, as though he wasn't there — or rather, as though he was something very nasty that couldn't understand them, like a slug.**

"Still do." Harry said softly.

"**What about what's-her-name, your friend — Yvonne?"**

"**On vacation in Majorca," snapped Aunt Petunia.**

"**You could just leave me here," Harry put in hopefully (he'd be able to watch what he wanted on television for a change and maybe even have a go on Dudley's computer).**

"You jinxed it." A first year said.

**Aunt Petunia looked as though she'd just swallowed a lemon.**

"**And come back and find the house in ruins?" she snarled.**

"He won't blow up the house!" Ginny said.

"**I won't blow up the house," said Harry, but they weren't listening.**

Ginny and Harry blushed.

"**I suppose we could take him to the zoo," said Aunt Petunia slowly, "… and leave him in the car…"**

"He's a person not a dog!"

"**That car's new, he's not sitting in it alone…"**

"Oh yeah, because that _car_ is more important than Harry!" Hargid yelled.

**Dudley began to cry loudly. In fact, he wasn't really crying — it had been years since he'd really cried — but he knew that if he screwed up his face and wailed, his mother would give him anything he wanted.**

There were many frowns.

"**Dinky Duddydums,**

Everyone but Umbridge laughed.

**don't cry, Mummy won't let him spoil your special day!" she cried, flinging her arms around him.**

"**I… don't… want… him… t-t-to come!" Dudley yelled between huge, pretend sobs. "He always sp-spoils everything!" He shot Harry a nasty grin through the gap in his mother's arms.**

**Just then, the doorbell rang — "Oh, good Lord, they're here!" said Aunt Petunia frantically — and a moment later, Dudley's best friend, Piers Polkiss, walked in with his mother.**

**Piers was a scrawny boy with a face like a rat.**

Ginny narrowed her eyes.

**He was usually the one who held people's arms behind their backs while Dudley hit them. Dudley stopped pretending to cry at once.**

**Half an hour later, Harry, who couldn't believe his luck, was sitting in the back of the Dursleys' car with Piers and Dudley, on the way to the zoo for the first time in his life. His aunt and uncle hadn't been able to think of anything else to do with him, but before they'd left, Uncle Vernon had taken Harry aside.**

"**I'm warning you," he had said, putting his large purple face right up close to Harry's, "I'm warning you now, boy — any funny business, anything at all — and you'll be in that cupboard from now until Christmas."**

"Oh I hope Remeus kills them." Harry mumbled.

"**I'm not going to do anything," said Harry, "honestly…"**

**But Uncle Vernon didn't believe him. No one ever did.**

**The problem was, strange things often happened around Harry and it was just no good telling the Dursleys he didn't make them happen.**

**Once, Aunt Petunia, tired of Harry coming back from the barbers looking as though he hadn't been at all, had taken a pair of kitchen scissors and cut his hair so short he was almost bald except for his bangs, which she left "to hide that horrible scar." Dudley had laughed himself silly at Harry, who spent a sleepless night imagining school the next day, where he was already laughed at for his baggy clothes and taped glasses.**

**Next morning, however, he had gotten up to find his hair exactly as it had been before Aunt Petunia had sheared it off.**

**He had been given a week in his cupboard for this, even though he had tried to explain that he couldn't explain how it had grown back so quickly.**

"My hair is the only thing that can beat me I swear it!" Harry said.

Lot's of people laughed about.

**Another time, Aunt Petunia had been trying to force him into a revolting old sweater of Dudley's (brown with orange puff balls).**

**The harder she tried to pull it over his head, the smaller it seemed to become, until finally it might have fitted a hand puppet, but certainly wouldn't fit Harry.**

**Aunt Petunia had decided it must have shrunk in the wash and, to his great relief, Harry wasn't punished.**

There were many sighs of relief.

**On the other hand, he'd gotten into terrible trouble for being found on the roof of the school kitchens. Dudley's gang had been chasing him as usual when, as much to Harry's surprise as anyone else's, there he was sitting on the chimney.**

"That's advanced magic!" Mad Eye Moody said.

"Impressive Mr. Potter." Madam Bones said.

**The Dursleys had received a very angry letter from Harry's headmistress telling them Harry had been climbing school buildings. But all he'd tried to do (as he shouted at Uncle Vernon through the locked door of his cupboard) was jump behind the big trashcans outside the kitchen doors. Harry supposed that the wind must have caught him in mid-jump.**

"Ok we're teaching you how to lie better, that was the worst lie ever." Fred and George said.

"Oh no you two aren't, though I have to agree that was a rither bad lie, Harry deary." Molly said.

"I was seven!" Harry laughed.

**But today, nothing was going to go wrong. It was even worth being with Dudley and Piers to be spending the day somewhere that wasn't school, his cupboard, or Mrs. Figg's cabbage-smelling living room.**

**While he drove, Uncle Vernon complained to Aunt Petunia. He liked to complain about things: people at work, Harry, the council, Harry, the bank, and Harry were just a few of his favourite subjects. This morning, it was motorcycles.**

"… **roaring along like maniacs, the young hoodlums," he said, as a motorcycle overtook them.**

"**I had a dream about a motorcycle," said Harry, remembering suddenly. "It was flying."**

**Uncle Vernon nearly crashed into the car in front. He turned right around in his seat and yelled at Harry, his face like a gigantic beet with a moustache: "MOTORCYCLES DON'T FLY!"**

**Dudley and Piers sniggered.**

"**I know they don't," said Harry. "It was only a dream."**

**But he wished he hadn't said anything. If there was one thing the Dursleys hated even more than his asking questions, it was his talking about anything acting in a way it shouldn't, no matter if it was in a dream or even a cartoon — they seemed to think he might get dangerous ideas.**

**It was a very sunny Saturday and the zoo was crowded with families. The Dursleys bought Dudley and Piers large chocolate ice creams at the entrance and then, because the smiling lady in the van had asked Harry what he wanted before they could hurry him away, they bought him a cheap lemon ice pop.**

"Oh I love those!" Muggle borns and Half bloods said.

**It wasn't bad, either, Harry thought, licking it as they watched a gorilla scratching its head who looked remarkably like Dudley, except that it wasn't blond.**

The students laughed again.

**Harry had the best morning he'd had in a long time. He was careful to walk a little way apart from the Dursleys so that Dudley and Piers, who were starting to get bored with the animals by lunchtime, wouldn't fall back on their favourite hobby of hitting him.**

**They ate in the zoo restaurant, and when Dudley had a tantrum because his knickerbocker glory didn't have enough ice cream on top, Uncle Vernon bought him another one and Harry was allowed to finish the first.**

**Harry felt, afterward, that he should have known it was all too good to last.**

"Oh no." Groaned Professor Sprout.

**After lunch they went to the reptile house. It was cool and dark in there, with lit windows all along the walls. Behind the glass, all sorts of lizards and snakes were crawling and slithering over bits of wood and stone. Dudley and Piers wanted to see huge, poisonous cobras and thick, man-crushing pythons. Dudley quickly found the largest snake in the place. It could have wrapped its body twice around Uncle Vernon's car and crushed it into a trash can — but at the moment it didn't look in the mood. In fact, it was fast asleep.**

**Dudley stood with his nose pressed against the glass, staring at the glistening brown coils.**

"Poor snake." Luna said.

"**Make it move," he whined at his father. Uncle Vernon tapped on the glass, but the snake didn't budge.**

"**Do it again," Dudley ordered. Uncle Vernon rapped the glass smartly with his knuckles, but the snake just snoozed on.**

"**This is boring," Dudley moaned. He shuffled away.**

**Harry moved in front of the tank and looked intently at the snake. He wouldn't have been surprised if it had died of boredom itself — no company except stupid people drumming their fingers on the glass trying to disturb it all day long. It was worse than having a cupboard as a bedroom, where the only visitor was Aunt Petunia hammering on the door to wake you up; at least he got to visit the rest of the house.**

**The snake suddenly opened its beady eyes. Slowly, very slowly, it raised its head until its eyes were on a level with Harry's.**

**It winked.**

Lots of people were looking at the book with confusion.

**Harry stared. Then he looked quickly around to see if anyone was watching. They weren't. He looked back at the snake and winked, too.**

**The snake jerked its head toward Uncle Vernon and Dudley, then raised its eyes to the ceiling. It gave Harry a look that said quite plainly:**

"**I get that all the time."**

"**I know," Harry murmured through the glass, though he wasn't sure the snake could hear him. "It must be really annoying."**

"You're talking to a snake." Crabbe said.

"I know, I was sad and alone, anyone would too, if they lived with those people." Harry said putting his head on his knees and looking at Tonks with a, sad and empty expression in his eyes.

**The snake nodded vigorously.**

"**Where do you come from, anyway?" Harry asked.**

**The snake jabbed its tail at a little sign next to the glass.**

"You're a parselmouth!" Umbridge said.

"That doesn't mean Harry is evil, Umbridge." Madam Bones said.

**Harry peered at it.**

**Boa Constrictor, Brazil.**

"**Was it nice there?"**

**The boa constrictor jabbed its tail at the sign again and Harry read on: This specimen was bred in the zoo. "Oh, I see — so you've never been to Brazil?"**

**As the snake shook its head, a deafening shout behind Harry made both of them jump. "DUDLEY! MR. DURSLEY! COME AND LOOK AT THIS SNAKE! YOU WON'T BELIEVE WHAT IT'S DOING!"**

"Little Git." Said Charlie.

**Dudley came waddling toward them as fast as he could.**

"**Out of the way, you," he said, punching Harry in the ribs. Caught by surprise, Harry fell hard on the concrete floor.**

"I'm so glad Remus and Sirius aren't here, they both would be growling right now." Harry mumbled.

**What came next happened so fast no one saw how it happened — one second, Piers and Dudley were leaning right up close to the glass, the next, they had leapt back with howls of horror.**

**Harry sat up and gasped; the glass front of the boa constrictor's tank had vanished.**

"Good job, Harry." Albus said, chuckling.

"What was you're first time using magic, sir?" Harry asked, looking up at Albus.

"Well fist time I used magic I was... four and manged to turned my father into a duck."

Most of the students' laughed.

"Really?" Hermoine asked.

Albus laughed.

**The great snake was uncoiling itself rapidly, slithering out onto the floor. People throughout the reptile house screamed and started running for the exits.**

**As the snake slid swiftly past him, Harry could have sworn a low, hissing voice said, "Brazil, here I come… Thanksss, amigo."**

"Wicked!" Said the twins.

**The keeper of the reptile house was in shock.**

"**But the glass," he kept saying, "where did the glass go?"**

Harry laughed remebering his face.

**The zoo director himself made Aunt Petunia a cup of strong, sweet tea while he apologized over and over again. Piers and Dudley could only gibber. As far as Harry had seen, the snake hadn't done anything except snap playfully at their heels as it passed, but by the time they were all back in Uncle Vernon's car, Dudley was telling them how it had nearly bitten off his leg, while Piers was swearing it had tried to squeeze him to death. But worst of all, for Harry at least, was Piers calming down enough to say, "Harry was talking to it, weren't you, Harry?"**.

_Git_ Minerva thought

**Uncle Vernon waited until Piers was safely out of the house before starting on Harry. He was so angry he could hardly speak. He managed to say, "Go — cupboard — stay — no meals," before he collapsed into a chair, and Aunt Petunia had to run and get him a large brandy.**

"Oh great and he drinks in front of them too!" Hagrid said.

**Harry lay in his dark cupboard much later, wishing he had a watch. He didn't know what time it was and he couldn't be sure the Dursleys were asleep yet. Until they were, he couldn't risk sneaking to the kitchen for some food.**

**He'd lived with the Dursleys almost ten years, ten miserable years, as long as he could remember, ever since he'd been a baby and his parents had died in that car crash. He couldn't remember being in the car when his parents had died. Sometimes, when he strained his memory during long hours in his cupboard, he came up with a strange vision: a blinding flash of green light and a burning pain on his forehead.**

Many people shot him sad looks.

**This, he supposed, was the crash, though he couldn't imagine where all the green light came from. He couldn't remember his parents at all.**

**His aunt and uncle never spoke about them, and of course he was forbidden to ask questions. There were no photographs of them in the house.**

"Not one?" Narcissa asked.

"Nope, you have pictures of Andromeda?"

"Yes, five of them."

**When he had been younger, Harry had dreamed and dreamed of some unknown relation coming to take him away, but it had never happened;**

"Sorry Harry, I should have listed to Minerva about not leaving you there." Albus said.

"I'm sorry too, I should have fought harder on changing his mind." Minerva said.

"It's ok, I don't blame you two at all."

**the Dursleys were his only family. Yet sometimes he thought (or maybe hoped) that strangers in the street seemed to know him. Very strange strangers they were, too.**

**A tiny man in a violet top hat had bowed to him once while out shopping with Aunt Petunia and Dudley. After asking Harry furiously if he knew the man, Aunt Petunia had rushed them out of the shop without buying anything.**

**A wild-looking old woman dressed all in green had waved merrily at him once on a bus. A bald man in a very long purple coat had actually shaken his hand in the street the other day and then walked away without a word. The weirdest thing about all these people was the way they seemed to vanish the second Harry tried to get a closer look.**

Harry snorted.

**At school, Harry had no one. Everybody knew that Dudley's gang hated that odd Harry Potter in his baggy old clothes and broken glasses, and nobody liked to disagree with Dudley's gang.**

Tonks closed the book.


	4. Break 1

**Bellatrix7LilyPotter6928Curl gave me the idea to have Ginny sing a song, thanks the idea, this chapter is in honor of you, hope you like it. :) Sorry how the lyrics to the song look they wouldn't work with me. I do not own this song either by the way.**

"That's the end of that chapter." Tonks said.

"We shall take a short break before continuing on reading Harry, Madam Bones if you please come with me to visit your Aunt and Uncle to get your belongings, you may take whomever you wis..." Albus said.

Before Albus could finished the doors opened and Severus, Remus, who was carrying a suitcase and Sirius walked through. Many were shocked to see Severus laughing along with Remus and Sirius.

"I can't believe you did that!" Sirius laughed.

"That was priceless!" Remus laughed.

"Why thank-you." Severus laughed.

"What did you three do?" Albus chuckled.

"Nothing Headmaster." The three in question smirked before laughing again.

"Is that my stuff?" Harry asked.

"Yeah, thought senses we were there we get your stuff pup." Sirius said.

"Thanks!"

"You're very welcome Pup." Remus said.

"Well than we'll all break and then continue reading, I know that will upset you Harry but, I can't control what Fudge and Umbridge do." Albus said.

Everyone in the great hall walked off.

"Harry." Minerva said.

"You guys go head I'll meet up with you after the break." Harry said running up to Minerva.

Now the time has moved on and Harry was walking alone while thinking about what Minerva said.

_"Harry I want you to tell me or your friends if you're hurt can you do that for me?" Minerva asked._

_Harry thought before slowly nodding his head yes._

_"Thank-you, Harry, you have many who care for you and it pains us to see you hurt, ok?"_

_"Yeah Aunt Minnie, I promos I'll tell If I'm hurt."_

Harry was so deep in thought that he bumped into a wall knocking his glasses off.

"Gezz Potter walk much." Harry heard Draco said.

Draco helped Harry up and picked his glasses up, cleaned them before handing them back to Harry.

"Thanks."

Draco was about to walk off when the sound of voices singing an unknown song.

**_The day I first met you You told me you'd never fall in love But now that I get you I know fear is what it really was _**

Draco and Harry followed the voices. They were both strong but beautiful. They lead to the music hall where they heard a bunch of music playing to the beat of the words they heard.

**_Now here we are, so close Yet so far, haven't I passed the test? When will you realize Baby, I'm not like the rest _**

**_Don't wanna break your heart I wanna give your heart a break I know you're scared it's wrong Like you might make a mistake _**

Peeking in side they saw Astoria and Ginny singing with Astoria's friends and sister along with Hermione and Luna.

**_There's just one life to live And there's no time to wait, to waste So let me give your heart a break Give your heart a break _**

**_Let me give your heart a break Your heart a break Oh, yeah yeah On Sunday, you went home alone _**

**_There were tears in your eyes I called your cell phone, my love But you did not reply The world is ours, if you want it _**

Harry and Draco looked at them in a whole another light. They had faint blushes on their faces looking at the two girls singing.

**_We can take it, if you just take my hand There's no turning back now Baby, try to understand Don't wanna break your heart _**

**_Wanna give your heart a break I know you're scared it's wrong Like you might make a mistake There's just one life to live_**

**_And there's no time to wait, to waste So let me give your heart a break Give your heart a break _**

**_Let me give your heart a break Your heart a break There's just so much you can take Give your heart a break_**

**_Let me give your heart a break Your heart a break Oh, yeah yeah When your lips are on my lips_**

**_And our hearts beat as one But you slip right out of my fingertips Every time you run, whoa Don't wanna break your heart Wanna give your heart a break I know you're scared it's wrong Like you might make a mistake There's just one life to live_**

**_And there's no time to wait, to waste So let me give your heart a break Cuz you've been hurt before I can see it in your eyes_**

**_You try to smile it away Some things, you can't disguise Don't wanna break your heart Baby, I can ease the ache, the ache_**

**_So, let me give your heart a break Give your heart a break Let me give your heart a break Your heart a break There's just so much you can take Give your heart a break Let me give your heart a break Your heart a break Oh yeah,yeah The day I first met you You told me you'd never fall in love_**

Harry and Draco watched as Everyone in the room clapped for Astoria and Ginny.

"Oh Astoria you have the most wonderful talent for music." Ginny said.

"Thank-you Ginny. So everyone what do you think of the song?" Astoria asked.

"Astoria this was so cool and so sweet, bet you sung it for Draco." A girl nether Draco or Harry knew.

"S-Shara no way... is it really that easily noticed?"

Draco eyes widen and his blush redden.

"Yes Astoria you're head over heals for him, like I am to Neville." Luna said.

"Agh I know but I can't just walk up to him and say, 'Hi Draco I love you!' I can't do that!"

Again Draco's blush deepened and Harry Snickered and pushed Draco in side before whisling laod getting the girls attachen. Astoria went red in the face and covered her mouth. Laughing Harry made himself known too.

"H-hi D-Draco." Astoria said.

"H-hi A-Astoria." Draco said.

"Nice song, by the way, Ginny, you're um a beautiful singer." Harry said.

"T-thanks Harry." Ginny said.

"Attachen students, please come back to the great hall for the next chapter." Albus' voice ecoed the school. The seven students left the room Draco and Astoria behide. Draco grabbed Astoria's hand and squeezed it.

"I love you too." Draco whispered.

Astoria blushed red and squeezed His hand back and put her head on his shoulder smiling.

"I'll get you back for that Potter." Draco said.

"Yeah what ever Malfoy." Harry said


	5. Letters From No One

**Bellatrix7LilyPotter6928Curl I'm glad you liked the last chapter. I want to thank everyone for the reviews and I hope you like this chapter. Sorry taking so long to update**

All the students soon gathred into the greathall sitting at their tables.

"No who would like to read next?" Umbridge asked.

"I'll read Tonks, pass me the books Tonks." Hagrid said.

Tonks made the book go to Hagrid who opened it the right page. **"****Letters From No One,"**

**The escape of the Brazilian boa constrictor earned Harry his longest-ever punishment.** **By the time he was allowed out of his cupboard again, the summer holidays had started**

Remus growled.

**and Dudley had already broken his new video camera, crashed his remote control airplane, and, first time out on his racing bike, knocked down old Mrs. Figg as she crossed Privet Drive on her crutches.**

**Harry was glad school was over, but there was no escaping Dudley's gang, who visited the house every single day. Piers, Dennis, Malcolm, and Gordon were all big and stupid, but as Dudley was the biggest and stupidest of the lot, he was the leader.**

**The rest of them were all quite happy to join in Dudley's favourite sport: Harry Hunting.**

"What person lately doesn't injoy playing that stupid game." Harry mumbled.

**This was why Harry spent as much time as possible out of the house, wandering around and thinking about the end of the holidays, where he could see a tiny ray of hope. When September came he would be going off to secondary school and, for the first time in his life, he wouldn't be with Dudley. Dudley had been accepted at Uncle Vernon's old private school, Smeltings.**

**Piers Polkiss was going there too. Harry, on the other hand, was going to Stonewall High,** **the local public school. Dudley thought this was very funny.**

"**They stuff people's heads down the toilet the first day at Stonewall," he told Harry. "Want to come upstairs and practice?"**

"**No, thanks," said Harry. "The poor toilet's never had anything as horrible as your head down it — it might be sick." Then he ran, before Dudley could work out what he'd said.**

"Oh lookie he's got his mother's cheek." Sirius laughed.

**One day in July, Aunt Petunia took Dudley to London to buy his Smeltings uniform, leaving Harry at Mrs. Figg's. Mrs. Figg wasn't as bad as usual. It turned out she'd broken her leg tripping over one of her cats, and she didn't seem quite as fond of them as before. She let Harry watch television and gave him a bit of chocolate cake that tasted as though she'd had it for several years.**

"I didn't care it was still good." Harry said.

**That evening, Dudley paraded around the living room for the family in his brand-new uniform. Smeltings' boys wore maroon tailcoats,** **orange knickerbockers,** **and flat straw hats called boaters.**

Fred and George burst out laughing.

**They also carried knobbly sticks, used for hitting each other while the teachers weren't looking. This was supposed to be good training for later life.**

"How's that good training?" Molly asked.

"No idea but it's terrible." Narcissa said.**  
**

**As he looked at Dudley in his new knickerbockers, Uncle Vernon said gruffly that it was the proudest moment of his life.**

**Aunt Petunia burst into tears and said she couldn't believe it was her Ickle Dudleykins,**

Everyone laughed at the name. It took five whole minutes to clam down so they could continue reading.

**he looked so handsome and grown-up.**

The girls gaged.

**Harry didn't trust himself to speak. He thought two of his ribs might already have cracked from trying not to laugh.**

**There was a horrible smell in the kitchen the next morning when Harry went in for breakfast. It seemed to be coming from a large metal tub in the sink. He went to have a look. The tub was full of what looked like dirty rags swimming in gray water.**

"**What's this?" he asked Aunt Petunia. Her lips tightened as they always did if he dared to ask a question.**

"Yep she really hasn't changed much." Severus said.

"**Your new school uniform," she said.**

**Harry looked in the bowl again.**

"**Oh," he said, "I didn't realize it had to be so wet."**

"**Don't be stupid," snapped Aunt Petunia. "I'm dyeing some of Dudley's old things gray for you. It'll look just like everyone else's when I've finished."**

**Harry seriously doubted this, but thought it best not to argue.**

"Good choice, Harry," Bill said.

He nodded.

**He sat down at the table and tried not to think about how he was going to look on his first day at Stonewall High — like he was wearing bits of old elephant skin, probably.**

**Dudley and Uncle Vernon came in, both with wrinkled noses because of the smell from Harry's new uniform. Uncle Vernon opened his newspaper as usual and Dudley banged his Smelting stick, which he carried everywhere, on the table.**

"How rude." Molly and Narcissa said.

**They heard the click of the mail slot and flop of letters on the doormat.**

"**Get the mail, Dudley," said Uncle Vernon from behind his paper.**

"Wait you mean he did something?" Collin asked.

"Wait for it." Harry said.

"**Make Harry get it."**

"**Get the mail, Harry."**

"**Make Dudley get it."**

"**Poke him with your Smelting stick, Dudley."**

**Harry dodged the Smelting stick and went to get the mail. Three things lay on the doormat: a postcard from Uncle Vernon's sister Marge, who was vacationing on the Isle of Wight, a brown envelope that looked like a bill, and — **_**a letter for Harry**_**.**

**Harry picked it up and stared at it, his heart twanging like a giant elastic band. No one, ever, in his whole life, had written to him.**

**Who would? He had no friends, no other relatives — he didn't belong to the library, so he'd never even got rude notes asking for books back. Yet here it was, a letter, addressed so plainly there could be no mistake:**

_**Mr. H. Potter**_

_**The Cupboard under the Stairs 4 Privet Drive**_

_**Little Whinging**_

_**Surrey**_

"This is why we need to check the letter's before they're sent off, Albus." Minerva said.

"I know and we'll start now my dear." Albus said.

**The envelope was thick and heavy, made of yellowish parchment, and the address was written in emerald-green ink.**

**There was no stamp.**

**Turning the envelope over, his hand trembling, Harry saw a purple wax seal bearing a coat of arms; a lion**

"GRYFFINDOR!"

**, an eagle,**

"RAVENCLAW!"

**a badger,**

"HUFFLEPUFF!"

**and a snake**

"SLYTHERIN!"

**surrounding a large letter **_**H**_**.**

"HOGWARTS!" The four houses cheered.

"**Hurry up, boy!" shouted Uncle Vernon from the kitchen. "What are you doing, checking for letter bombs?" He chuckled at his own joke.**

"That was by far the poorest joke ever, even Percy can tell better ones then that." Fred and George said.

**Harry went back to the kitchen, still staring at his letter. He handed Uncle Vernon the bill and the postcard, sat down, and slowly began to open the yellow envelope.**

**Uncle Vernon ripped open the bill, snorted in disgust, and flipped over the postcard.**

"**Marge's ill," he informed Aunt Petunia. "Ate a funny whelk…"**

"**Dad!" said Dudley suddenly. "Dad, Harry's got something!"**

**Harry was on the point of unfolding his letter,**

**which was written on the same heavy parchment as the envelope, when it was jerked sharply out of his hand by Uncle Vernon.**

"**That's **_**mine**_**!" said Harry, trying to snatch it back.**

"I bet we soon see Harry's temper." Lee said.

"**Who'd be writing to you?" sneered Uncle Vernon,**

"Plenty of people!" Hermione said.

"**P-P-Petunia!" he gasped.**

**Dudley tried to grab the letter to read it, but Uncle Vernon held it high out of his reach. Aunt Petunia took it curiously and read the first line. For a moment it looked as though she might faint. She clutched her throat and made a choking noise.**

"**Vernon! Oh my goodness — Vernon!"**

"Wow aren't they a little melodramatic?" Katie asked.

**They stared at each other, seeming to have forgotten that Harry and Dudley were still in the room. Dudley wasn't used to being ignored. He gave his father a sharp tap on the head with his Smelting stick.**

"Why would anyone do that to their father?!" Bill asked.

"**I want to read that letter," he said loudly.**

"_**I **_**want to read it," said Harry furiously, "as it's **_**mine**_**."**

"**OUT!" roared Uncle Vernon, and he took both Harry and Dudley by the scruffs of their necks and threw them into the hall,**

"Were you all right?" Madam Pomfrey asked.

"Yeah." Harry said.

**slamming the kitchen door behind them. Harry and Dudley promptly had a furious but silent fight over who would listen at the keyhole; Dudley won, so Harry,** **his glasses dangling from one ear, lay flat on his stomach to listen at the crack between door and floor.**

"**Vernon," Aunt Petunia was saying in a quivering voice, "look at the address — how could they possibly know where he sleeps? You don't think they're watching the house?"**

"Like we have nothing better to do." Sverus said.

"**Watching — spying — might be following us," muttered Uncle Vernon wildly.**

"**But what should we do, Vernon? Should we write back? Tell them we don't want —"**

**Harry could see Uncle Vernon's shiny black shoes pacing up and down the kitchen.**

"**No," he said finally. "No, we'll ignore it. If they don't get an answer… Yes, that's best… we won't do anything…"**

Albus chuckled. "That won't help."

"**But —"**

"**I'm not having one in the house, Petunia! Didn't we swear when we took him in we'd stamp out that dangerous nonsense?"**

**That evening when he got back from work, Uncle Vernon did something he'd never done before; he visited Harry in his cupboard.**

"**Where's my letter?" said Harry, the moment Uncle Vernon had squeezed through the door. "Who's writing to me?"**

"**No one. It was addressed to you by mistake," said Uncle Vernon shortly.**

"**I have burned it."**

"He can't do that." A muggle born said.

"**It was **_**not **_**a mistake," said Harry angrily, "it had my cupboard on it."**

"**SILENCE!" yelled Uncle Vernon, and a couple of spiders fell from the ceiling.**

Ron shuddered.

**He took a few deep breaths and then forced his face into a smile, which looked quite painful.**

"**Er — yes, Harry — about this cupboard. Your aunt and I have been thinking… you're really getting a bit big for it… we think it might be nice if you moved into Dudley's second bedroom.**

"Second bedroom?" Hissed Remus.

"**Why?" said Harry.**

"First off anyone would if they giving you something." Harry said.

"**Don't ask questions!" snapped his uncle. "Take this stuff upstairs, now."**

**The Dursleys' house had four bedrooms: one for Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia, one for visitors (usually Uncle Vernon's sister, Marge), one where Dudley slept, and one where Dudley kept all the toys and things that wouldn't fit into his first bedroom.**

Remus growled.

**It only took Harry one trip upstairs to move everything he owned from the cupboard to this room. He sat down on the bed and stared around him. Nearly everything in here was broken. The month-old video camera was lying on top of a small, working tank Dudley had once driven over the next door neighbour's dog; in the corner was Dudley's first-ever television set, which he'd put his foot through when his favourite program had been cancelled; there was a large birdcage, which had once held a parrot that Dudley had swapped at school for a real air rifle, which was up on a shelf with the end all bent because Dudley had sat on it. Other shelves were full of books. They were the only things in the room that looked as though they'd never been touched.**

"Brat!" Spat Charlie.

**From downstairs came the sound of Dudley bawling at his mother, "I don't **_**want **_**him in there… I **_**need **_**that room… make him get out…"**

"Oh boo hoo." Fred said.

"What a baby." George said.

**Harry sighed and stretched out on the bed. Yesterday he'd have given anything to be up here. Today he'd rather be back in his cupboard with that letter than up here without it.** **Next morning at breakfast, everyone was rather quiet. Dudley was in shock. He'd screamed, whacked his father with his Smelting stick, been sick on purpose, kicked his mother, and thrown his tortoise through the greenhouse roof, and he still didn't have his room back.**

"Ok I don't know about the rest of you but I've about had it with this kid." Made eyes said.

Everyone but Umbridge agreed.

**Harry was thinking about this time yesterday and bitterly wishing he'd opened the letter in the hall.**

**Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia kept looking at each other darkly.**

**When the mail arrived, Uncle Vernon, who seemed to be trying to be nice to Harry, made Dudley go and get it.**

**They heard him banging things with his Smelting stick all the way down the hall. Then he shouted, "There's another one! 'Mr. H. Potter, The Smallest Bedroom, 4 Privet Drive —'"**

**With a strangled cry, Uncle Vernon leapt from his seat and ran down the hall, Harry right behind him. Uncle Vernon had to wrestle Dudley to the ground to get the letter from him, which was made difficult by the fact that Harry had grabbed Uncle Vernon around the neck from behind. After a minute of confused fighting, in which everyone got hit a lot by the Smelting stick, Uncle Vernon straightened up, gasping for breath, with Harry's letter clutched in his hand.**

Harry, Hermione and Ron bursted out laughing.

"Oh so you've always done that!" Ron asked.

"Yeah, buddy." Harry said.

The two of them high five along with Hermione.

"**Go to your cupboard — I mean, your bedroom," he wheezed at Harry. "Dudley — go — just go."**

**Harry walked round and round his new room. Someone knew he had moved out of his cupboard and they seemed to know he hadn't received his first letter. Surely that meant they'd try again? And this time he'd make sure they didn't fail. He had a plan.**

"Oh boy." Hermione teased.

"Oi." Harry laughed.

**The repaired alarm clock rang at six o'clock the next morning. Harry turned it off quickly and dressed silently. He mustn't wake the Dursleys. He stole downstairs without turning on any of the lights.**

**He was going to wait for the postman on the corner of Privet Drive and get the letters for number four first. His heart hammered as he crept across the dark hall toward the front door —**

"**AAAAARRRGH!"**

**Harry leapt into the air; he'd trodden on something big and squashy on the doormat — something **_**alive**_**!**

**Lights clicked on upstairs and to his horror Harry realized that the big, squashy something had been his uncle's face.**

Everyone but Umbridge laughed.

**Uncle Vernon had been lying at the foot of the front door in a sleeping bag, clearly making sure that Harry didn't do exactly what he'd been trying to do. He shouted at Harry for about half an hour and then told him to go and make a cup of tea. Harry shuffled miserably off into the kitchen and by the time he got back, the mail had arrived, right into Uncle Vernon's lap. Harry could see three letters addressed in green ink.**

"**I want —" he began, but Uncle Vernon was tearing the letters into pieces before his eyes.**

**Uncle Vernon didn't go to work that day.**

**He stayed at home and nailed up the mail slot.**

"**See," he explained to Aunt Petunia through a mouthful of nails, "if they can't **_**deliver **_**them they'll just give up."**

"**I'm not sure that'll work, Vernon."**

"**Oh, these people's minds work in strange ways, Petunia, they're not like you and me," said Uncle Vernon, trying to knock in a nail with the piece of fruitcake Aunt Petunia had just brought him.**

**On Friday, no less than twelve letters arrived for Harry. As they couldn't go through the mail slot they had been pushed under the door, slotted through the sides, and a few even forced through the small window in the downstairs bathroom.**

**Uncle Vernon stayed at home again. After burning all the letters, he got out a hammer and nails and boarded up the cracks around the front and back doors so no one could go out. He hummed "Tiptoe Through the Tulips" as he worked, and jumped at small noises.**

The students snickered/giggled.

**On Saturday, things began to get out of hand. Twenty-four letters to Harry found their way into the house, rolled up and hidden inside each of the two-dozen eggs that their very confused milkman had handed Aunt Petunia through the living room window. While Uncle Vernon made furious telephone calls to the post office and the dairy trying to find someone to complain to, Aunt Petunia shredded the letters in her food processor.**

"How in the world did you managed that?" Hagrid asked.

"Hagrid have you met Minerva?" Most of the stuff asked.

"Hello Minerva, nice to meet you I'm Hagrid."

Everyone but Umbridge laughed.

**Who on earth wants to talk to **_**you **_**this badly?" Dudley asked Harry in amazement.**

**On Sunday morning, Uncle Vernon sat down at the breakfast table looking tired and rather ill, but happy.**

"**No post on Sundays," he reminded them cheerfully as he spread marmalade on his newspapers, "no damn letters today —"**

**Something came whizzing down the kitchen chimney as he spoke and caught him sharply on the back of the head. Next moment, thirty or forty letters came pelting out of the fireplace like bullets. The Dursleys ducked, but Harry leapt into the air trying to catch one —**

"And thus starts the Seeker inside him." Lee said.

"**Out! OUT!"**

**Uncle Vernon seized Harry around the waist and threw him into the hall.**

Remus growled low in his throat along with Sirius.

**When Aunt Petunia and Dudley had run out with their arms over their faces, Uncle Vernon slammed the door shut. They could hear the letters still streaming into the room, bouncing off the walls and floor.**

"**That does it," said Uncle Vernon, trying to speak calmly but pulling great tufts out of his moustache at the same time. "I want you all back here in five minutes ready to leave. We're going away. Just pack some clothes. No arguments!"**

"I didn't know you moved, Potter." Draco said.

"Wait and see." Harry said.

**He looked so dangerous with half his moustache missing that no one dared argue. Ten minutes later they had wrenched their way through the boarded-up doors and were in the car, speeding toward the highway. Dudley was sniffling in the back seat; his father had hit him round the head for holding them up while he tried to pack his television, VCR, and computer in his sports bag.**

"As much as I dislike the brat, he shouldn't have been hit." Madam Bones said.

**They drove. And they drove. Even Aunt Petunia didn't dare ask where they were going. Every now and then Uncle Vernon would take a sharp turn and drive in the opposite direction for a while.**

"**Shake 'em off… shake 'em off," he would mutter whenever he did this.**

**They didn't stop to eat or drink all day. By nightfall Dudley was howling. He'd never had such a bad day in his life. He was hungry, he'd missed five television programs he'd wanted to see, and he'd never gone so long without blowing up an alien on his computer.**

**Uncle Vernon stopped at last outside a gloomy-looking hotel on the outskirts of a big city. Dudley and Harry shared a room with twin beds and damp, musty sheets. Dudley snored but Harry stayed awake, sitting on the windowsill, staring down at the lights of passing cars and wondering…**

**They ate stale cornflakes and cold tinned tomatoes on toast for breakfast the next day.**

"'**Scuse me, but is one of you Mr. H. Potter? Only I got about an 'undred of these at the front desk."**

**She held up a letter so they could read the green ink address:**

_**Mr. H. Potter**_

_**Room 17**_

_**Railview Hotel**_

_**Cokeworth**_

**Harry made a grab for the letter but Uncle Vernon knocked his hand out of the way. The woman stared.**

"**I'll take them," said Uncle Vernon, standing up quickly and following her from the dining room.**

"**Wouldn't it be better just to go home, dear?" Aunt Petunia suggested timidly, hours later, but Uncle Vernon didn't seem to hear her.**

**Exactly what he was looking for, none of them knew. He drove them into the middle of a forest, got out, looked around, shook his head, got back in the car, and off they went again. The same thing happened in the middle of a ploughed field, halfway across a suspension bridge, and at the top of a multilevel parking garage.**

"**Daddy's gone mad, hasn't he?" Dudley asked Aunt Petunia dully late that afternoon.**

"Daddy went made a long time ago." Fred and George said in a small baby voice.

Harry laughed.

**Uncle Vernon had parked at the coast, locked them all inside the car, and disappeared.**

**It started to rain. Great drops beat on the roof of the car. Dudley snivelled.**

"**It's Monday," he told his mother. "The Great Humberto's on tonight. I want to stay somewhere with a **_**television**_**."**

**Monday.**

"Why does that matter?" Luna asked.

**This reminded Harry of something. If it **_**was **_**Monday — and you could usually count on Dudley to know the days the week, because of television — then tomorrow, Tuesday, was Harry's eleventh birthday.**

"Happy Birthday!" Gryffindor cheered.

**Of course, his birthdays were never exactly fun — last year, the Dursleys had given him a coat hanger and a pair of Uncle Vernon's old socks.**

McGonagall's eyes narrowed at this and Remus let out a particularly nasty snarl. Harry scooted away from him again. Problem was that McGonagall was there. McGonagall's hand jumped to his shoulder again. "Remus, please control your temper." she told the werewolf.

**Still, you weren't eleven every day.**

**Uncle Vernon was back and he was smiling.**

"Oh no..."

**He was also carrying a long, thin package and didn't answer Aunt Petunia when she asked what he'd bought.**

"**Found the perfect place!" he said. "Come on! Everyone out!"**

**It was very cold outside the car. Uncle Vernon was pointing at what looked like a large rock way out at sea. Perched on top of the rock was the most miserable little shack you could imagine. One thing was certain, there was no television in there.**

"**Storm forecast for tonight!" said Uncle Vernon gleefully**

**, clapping his hands together. "And this gentleman's kindly agreed to lend us his boat!"**

**A toothless old man came ambling up to them, pointing, with a rather wicked grin, at an old rowboat bobbing in the iron-gray water below them.**

"**I've already got us some rations," said Uncle Vernon, "so all aboard!"**

**It was freezing in the boat. Icy sea spray and rain crept down their necks and a chilly wind whipped their faces. After what seemed like hours they reached the rock, where Uncle Vernon, slipping and sliding, led the way to the broken-down house.**

**The inside was horrible; it smelled strongly of seaweed, the wind whistled through the gaps in the wooden walls, and the fireplace was damp and empty. There were only two rooms.**

**Uncle Vernon's rations turned out to be a bag of chips each and four bananas.**

**He tried to start a fire but the empty chip bags just smoked and shriveled up.**

"**Could do with some of those letters now, eh?" he said cheerfully.**

**He was in a very good mood. Obviously he thought nobody stood a chance of reaching them here in a storm to deliver mail.**

**Harry privately agreed, though the thought didn't cheer him up at all.**

**As night fell, the promised storm blew up around them. Spray from the high waves splattered the walls of the hut and a fierce wind rattled the filthy windows. Aunt Petunia found a few mouldy blankets in the second room and made up a bed for Dudley on the moth-eaten sofa. She and Uncle Vernon went off to the lumpy bed next door, and Harry was left to find the softest bit of floor he could and to curl up under the thinnest, most ragged blanket.**

"WHAT?!" Sirius and Remus yelled.

Harry flinched and moved closer to Ginny.

**The storm raged more and more ferociously as the night went on. Harry couldn't sleep. He shivered and turned over, trying to get comfortable, his stomach rumbling with hunger. Dudley's snores were drowned by the low rolls of thunder that started near midnight. The lighted dial of Dudley's watch, which was dangling over the edge of the sofa on his fat wrist, told Harry he'd be eleven in ten minutes' time. He lay and watched his birthday tick nearer, wondering if the Dursleys would remember at all, wondering where the letter writer was now.**

**Five minutes to go. Harry heard something creak outside. He hoped the roof wasn't going to fall in, although he might be warmer if it did.**

**Four minutes to go. Maybe the house in Privet Drive would be so full of letters when they got back that he'd be able to steal one somehow.**

**Three minutes to go. Was that the sea, slapping hard on the rock like that? And (two minutes to go) what was that funny crunching noise? Was the rock crumbling into the sea?**

**One minute to go and he'd be eleven. Thirty seconds… twenty… ten… nine — maybe he'd wake Dudley up, just to annoy him**

— **three… two… one…**

**BOOM.**

Everyone jump as Hagrid yelled that part up. The students laughed.

**The whole shack shivered and Harry sat bolt upright, staring at the door. Someone was outside, knocking to come in.**

"That's the end of this chapter, who wants to read next?" Hagrid asked marking the page.


	6. The Keeper of the Keys

**I want to thank those for their reviews again. Bellatrix7LilyPotter6928Curly thanks again for you review. alicewiggles and I have been talking about the type of animagus Harry and his friends should be. She saws that Ron and Hermione should be a lion and lioness. If you have any ideas about other characters let me know and I might put it the story. Bellatrix7LilyPotter6928Curly I'm sorry to hear what happen to your teacher, Mrs. G, and I hope she gets better.**

"I'll read Hagrid." Remus said.

Hagrid threw the book, which Remus caught easily, opening it to the right chapter. "**The Keeper of the Keys,"**

Harry snickered remembering what Hagrid did to his cousin.

**BOOM.**

Those who were close to to the werewolf jumped as he shouted it. Remus laughed before continuing.

**They knocked again. Dudley jerked awake.**

"**Where's the cannon?" he said stupidly.**

"Hermione, don't those shoot medal balls?" Ginny asked. "Yeah." Hermione said.

**There was a crash behind them and Uncle Vernon came skidding into the room. He was holding a rifle in his hands .Now they knew what had been in the long, thin package he had brought with them.**

"Why that fat git brought a weapon!" The muggle borns and half bloods yelled.

"**Who's there?" he shouted. "I warn you — I'm armed!"**

**There was a pause. Then —**

**SMASH!**

**The door was hit with such force that it swung clean off its hinges and with a deafening crash landed flat on the floor.**

**A giant of a man was standing in the doorway. His face was almost completely hidden by a long, shaggy mane of hair and a wild, tangled beard, but you could make out his eyes, glinting like black beetles under all the hair.**

"Hagrid." Gryffindor cheered.

**The giant squeezed his way into the hut, stooping so that his head just brushed the ceiling. He bent down, picked up the door, and fitted it easily back into its frame. The noise of the storm outside dropped a little. He turned to look at them all.**

"**Couldn't make us a cup o' tea, could yeh? It's not been an easy journey…"**

"I bet with all that rain." Sirius said.

**He strode over to the sofa where Dudley sat frozen with fear.**

"**Budge up, yeh great lump," said the stranger.**

"About time." Charlie said.

**Dudley squeaked and ran to hide behind his mother, who was crouching, terrified, behind Uncle Vernon.**

The students chuckled/giggled.

"**An' here's Harry!" said the giant.**

**Harry looked up into the fierce, wild, shadowy face and saw that the beetle eyes were crinkled in a smile.**

"**Las' time I saw you, you was only a baby," said the giant. "Yeh look a lot like yer dad, but yeh've got yer mom's eyes."**

**Uncle Vernon made a funny rasping noise.**

"**I demand that you leave at once, sir!" he said. "You are breaking and entering!"**

"Right, I'm going to total listen to the fat git.

"**Ah, shut up, Dursley, yeh great prune," said the giant;**

The four houses and some adults cheered.

**he reached over the back of the sofa, jerked the gun out of Uncle Vernon's hands, bent it into a knot as easily as if it had been made of rubber, and threw it into a corner of the room.**

The four houses gulped at the half giant's straight.

**Uncle Vernon made another funny noise, like a mouse being trodden on.**

"**Anyway — Harry," said the giant, turning his back on the Dursleys, "a very happy birthday to yeh. Got summat fer yeh here — I mighta sat on it at some point, but it'll taste all right."**

"Um... Hagrid..." Billy started.

"No I didn't make it, Molly did."

"Thank-you Mrs. Weasley.

"You're very welcome Harry dear." Molly said.

**From an inside pocket of his black overcoat he pulled a slightly squashed box. Harry opened it with trembling fingers. Inside was a large, sticky chocolate cake with **_**Happy Birthday Harry **_**written on it in green icing.**

**Harry looked up at the giant. He meant to say thank you, but the words got lost on the way to his mouth, and what he said instead was, "Who are you?"**

**The giant chuckled.**

"**True, I haven't introduced myself. Rubeus Hagrid, Keeper of Keys and Grounds at Hogwarts."**

**He held out an enormous hand and shook Harry's whole arm.**

"Sorry Harry." Hagrid said.

"**What about that tea then, eh?" he said, rubbing his hands together. "I'd not say no ter summat stronger if yeh've got it, mind."**

**His eyes fell on the empty grate with the shriveled chip bags in it and he snorted. He bent down over the fireplace; they couldn't see what he was doing but when he drew back a second later, there was a roaring fire there.**

"Doing magic when you were not allowed too." Umbridge smiled evilly.

"I had full permission from Dumbledore, so shut it."

The four house and several of the stuff members cheered and Umbridge huffed and sent a glare at Lucius, Fudge, Madam Bones and Made eye, who laughed before coughing to hid it.

**It filled the whole damp hut with flickering light and Harry felt the warmth wash over him as though he'd sunk into a hot bath.**

**The giant sat back down on the sofa, which sagged under his weight, and began taking all sorts of things out of the pockets of his coat:**

**a copper kettle, a squashy package of sausages, a poker, a teapot, several chipped mugs, and a bottle of some amber liquid that he took a swig from before starting to make tea.**

**Soon the hut was full of the sound and smell of sizzling sausage. Nobody said a thing while the giant was working, but as he slid the first six fat, juicy, slightly burnt sausages from the poker, Dudley fidgeted a little. Uncle Vernon said sharply, "Don't touch anything he gives you, Dudley."**

**The giant chuckled darkly.**

"**Yer great puddin' of a son don' need fattenin' anymore, Dursley, don' worry."**

More cheers for the half giant.

**He passed the sausages to Harry, who was so hungry he had never tasted anything so wonderful, but he still couldn't take his eyes off the giant. Finally, as nobody seemed about to explain anything, he said, "I'm sorry, but I still don't really know who you are."**

**The giant took a gulp of tea and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand.**

"**Call me Hagrid," he said, "everyone does. An' like I told yeh, I'm Keeper of Keys at Hogwarts — yeh'll know all about Hogwarts, o' course.**

"**Er — no," said Harry.**

**Hagrid looked shocked.**

"**Sorry," Harry said quickly.**

"_**Sorry**_**?" barked Hagrid, turning to stare at the Dursleys, who shrank back into the shadows. "It's them as should be sorry! I knew yeh weren't gettin' yer letters but I never thought yeh wouldn't even know abou' Hogwarts, fer cryin' out loud! Did yeh never wonder where yer parents learned it all?"**

"**All what?" asked Harry.**

"**ALL WHAT?" Hagrid thundered.**

"**Now wait jus' one second!"**

**He had leapt to his feet. In his anger he seemed to fill the whole hut. The Dursleys were cowering against the wall.**

"**Do you mean ter tell me," he growled at the Dursleys, "that this boy — this boy! — knows nothin' abou' — about ANYTHING?"**

"Sorry didn't mean it like that." Hagrid said.

**Harry thought this was going a bit far. He had been to school, after all, and his marks weren't bad.**

"Oh really?" Hermione asked.

"All b's." Harry asked.

"And why aren't you like that here?"

"Potter's at the top five of the highest grades under you Ginger." Severus said.

"Really?" Harry asked.

"Yes, Hermione bring first than you, Ron, Ginny, Luna." Albus said.

"**I know **_**some **_**things," he said. "I can, you know, do math and stuff."**

**But Hagrid simply waved his hand and said, "About **_**our **_**world, I mean. **_**Your **_**world. **_**My **_**world. **_**Yer parents' world**_**."**

"**What world?"**

**Hagrid looked as if he was about to explode.**

"**DURSLEY!" he boomed.**

**Uncle Vernon, who had gone very pale, whispered something that sounded like "Mimblewimble."**

**Hagrid stared wildly at Harry. "But yeh must know about yer mom and dad," he said. "I mean, they're **_**famous**_**. You're **_**famous**_**."**

"**What? My — my mom and dad weren't famous, were they?"**

"**Yeh don' know… yeh don' know…" Hagrid ran his fingers through his hair, fixing Harry with a bewildered stare.**

"**Yeh don' know what yeh **_**are**_**?" he said finally.**

**Uncle Vernon suddenly found his voice.**

"**Stop!" he commanded. "Stop right there, sir! I forbid you to tell the boy anything!"**

Everyone but Umbridge laughed.

**A braver man than Vernon Dursley would have quailed under the furious look Hagrid now gave him; when Hagrid spoke, his every syllable trembled with rage.**

"**You never told him? Never told him what was in the letter Dumbledore left fer him? I was there! I saw Dumbledore leave it, Dursley! An' you've kept it from him all these years?"**

More growls

"**Kept **_**what **_**from me?" said Harry eagerly.**

"**STOP! I FORBID YOU!" yelled Uncle Vernon in panic.**

Many snorted.

**Aunt Petunia gave a gasp of horror.**

Many people rolled their eyes.

"**Ah, go boil yer heads, both of yeh," said Hagrid.**

**"Harry — yer a wizard."**

"Way to tell him Hagrid." Katie said.

**There was silence inside the hut. Only the sea and the whistling wind could be heard.**

"**I'm a **_**what**_**?" gasped Harry.**

"I said the same thing!" Muggle born and half bloods said.

"**A wizard, o' course," said Hagrid, sitting back down on the sofa, which groaned and sank even lower, "an' a thumpin' good 'un, I'd say, once yeh've been trained up a bit. With a mum an' dad like yours, what else would yeh be? An' I reckon it's abou' time yeh read yer letter."**

**Harry stretched out his hand at last to take the yellowish envelope, addressed in emerald green**

"Why is it always green?" Daphne asked.

"Because it's her favorite color." The staff said.

Minerva blushed nodding her head.

** to **_**Mr. H. Potter, The Floor, Hut-on-the-Rock, The Sea.**_

**He pulled out the letter and read:**

_**HOGWARTS SCHOOL of WITCHCRAFT and WIZARDRY**_

_**Headmaster: ALBUS DUMBLEDORE**_

_**(Order of Merlin, First Class, Grand Sorc., Chf. Warlock, Supreme Mugwump, International Confed. of Wizards)**_

_**Dear Mr. Potter,**_

_**We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Please find enclosed a list of all necessary books and equipment.**_

_**Term begins on September 1. We await your owl by no later than July 31.**_

_**Yours sincerely,**_

_**Minerva McGonagall,**_

_**Deputy Headmistress**_

**Questions exploded inside Harry's head like fireworks and he couldn't decide which to ask first. After a few minutes he stammered, "What does it mean, they await my owl?"**

"**Gallopin' Gorgons, that reminds me," said Hagrid, clapping a hand to his forehead with enough force to knock over a cart horse, and from yet another pocket inside his overcoat he pulled an owl — a real, live, rather ruffled-looking owl**

"Before any of you say something, he got in there all on its own." Hagrid said.

— **a long quill, and a roll of parchment. With his tongue between his teeth he scribbled a note that Harry could read upside down:**

_**Dear Professor Dumbledore,**_

_**Given Harry his letter.**_

_**Taking him to buy his things tomorrow.**_

_**Weather's horrible. Hope you're well.**_

_**Hagrid**_

"I'm surprised you could read it." Albus chuckled.

**Hagrid rolled up the note, gave it to the owl, which clamped it in its beak, went to the door, and threw the owl out into the storm. Then he came back and sat down as though this was as normal as talking on the telephone.**

Harry chuckled.

**Harry realized his mouth was open and closed it quickly.**

"**Where was I?" said Hagrid, but at that moment, Uncle Vernon, still ashen-faced but looking very angry, moved into the firelight.**

"**He's not going," he said.**

**Hagrid grunted.**

"**I'd like ter see a great Muggle like you stop him," he said.**

"**A what?" said Harry, interested.**

"**A Muggle," said Hagrid, "it's what we call nonmagic folk like them. An' it's your bad luck you grew up in a family o' the biggest Muggles I ever laid eyes on."**

"More like the fattest muggles." Astoria said.

"**We swore when we took him in we'd put a stop to that rubbish," said Uncle Vernon, "swore we'd stamp it out of him! Wizard indeed!"**

Remus growled.

"**You **_**knew**_**?" said Harry. "You **_**knew **_**I'm a — a wizard?"**

"Oh they knew." Sirius said.

"**Knew!" shrieked Aunt Petunia suddenly. "**_**Knew**_**! Of course we knew! How could you not be, my dratted sister being what she was?**

"She wasn't dratted!" Remus growled.

**Oh, she got a letter just like that and disappeared off to that — that **_**school **_**— and came home every vacation with her pockets full of frog spawn, turning teacups into rats.**

**But for my mother and father, oh no, it was Lily this and Lily that, they were proud of having a witch in the family!"**

**She stopped to draw a deep breath and then went ranting on. It seemed she had been wanting to say all this for years.**

"Oh she has." Sirius said.

"**Then she met that Potter at school and they left and got married and had you, and of course I knew you'd be just the same, just as strange, just as — as —**_**abnormal **_— **and then, if you please, she went and got herself blown up and we got landed with you!"**

Many people growled.

**Harry had gone very white. As soon as he found his voice he said, "Blown up? You told me they died in a car crash!"**

"**CAR CRASH!" roared Hagrid, jumping up so angrily that the Dursleys scuttled back to their corner. "How could a car crash kill Lily an' James Potter? It's an outrage! A scandal! Harry Potter not knowin' his own story when every kid in our world knows his name!"**

"**But why? What happened?" Harry asked urgently.**

**The anger faded from Hagrid's face. He looked suddenly anxious.**

"**I never expected this," he said, in a low, worried voice. "I had no idea, when Dumbledore told me there might be trouble gettin' hold of yeh, how much yeh didn't know. Ah, Harry, I don' know if I'm the right person ter tell yeh — but someone's gotta — yeh can't go off ter Hogwarts not knowin'."**

**He threw a dirty look at the Dursleys.**

"**Well, it's best yeh know as much as I can tell yeh — mind, I can't tell yeh everythin', it's a great myst'ry, parts of it…"**

**He sat down, stared into the fire for a few seconds, and then said, "It begins, I suppose, with — with a person called — but it's incredible yeh don't know his name, everyone in our world knows —"**

"**Who?"**

"**Well — I don' like sayin' the name if I can help it. No one does."**

"**Why not?"**

"**Gulpin' gargoyles, Harry, people are still scared.**

**Blimey, this is difficult. See, there was this wizard who went… bad. As bad as you could go. Worse. Worse than worse. His name was…"**

**Hagrid gulped, but no words came out.**

"**Could you write it down?" Harry suggested.**

"**Nah — can't spell it. All right —**_**Voldemort**_**. "**

A few people winced.

**Hagrid shuddered. "Don' make me say it again. Anyway, this — this wizard, about twenty years ago now, started lookin' fer followers. Got 'em, too — some were afraid, some just wanted a bit o' his power, 'cause he was gettin' himself power, all right. Dark days, Harry. Didn't know who ter trust, didn't dare get friendly with strange wizards or witches… terrible things happened. He was takin' over. 'Course, some stood up to him — an' he killed 'em. Horribly. One o' the only safe places left was Hogwarts. Reckon Dumbledore's the only one You-Know-Who was afraid of. Didn't dare try takin' the school, not jus' then, anyway.**

"**Now, yer mum an' dad were as good a witch an' wizard as I ever knew. Head boy an' girl at Hogwarts in their day! Suppose the myst'ry is why You-Know-Who never tried to get 'em on his side before… probably knew they were too close ter Dumbledore ter want anythin' ter do with the Dark Side.**

"**Maybe he thought he could persuade 'em… maybe he just wanted 'em outta the way. All anyone knows is, he turned up in the village where you was all living, on Halloween ten years ago. You was just a year old. He came ter yer house an' — an' —"**

Harry sniffed and Ginny hugged him closely. Harry put his head on her lap and looked at her as she look down and him and moved his hair.

**Hagrid suddenly pulled out a very dirty, spotted handkerchief and blew his nose with a sound like a foghorn.**

"**Sorry," he said. "But it's that sad — knew yer mum an' dad, an' nicer people yeh couldn't find — anyway…**

Everyone who knew Lily and James wore sad smiles.

"**You-Know-Who killed 'em. An' then — an' this is the real myst'ry of the thing — he tried to kill you, too. Wanted ter make a clean job of it, I suppose, or maybe he just liked killin' by then. But he couldn't do it. Never wondered how you got that mark on yer forehead? That was no ordinary cut. That's what yeh get when a powerful, evil curse touches yeh — took care of yer mum an' dad an' yer house, even — but it didn't work on you, an' that's why yer famous, Harry.**

Harry made a face about being famous.

**No one ever lived after he decided ter kill 'em, no one except you, an' he'd killed some o' the best witches an' wizards of the age — the McKinnons, the Bones,**

Madam Bones sniffed crying over her family.

** the Prewetts**

Molly sniffed while flinching, Arthur put his arm around her and held her close as she cried over her family.

— **an' you was only a baby, an' you lived."**

**Something very painful was going on in Harry's mind. As Hagrid's story came to a close, he saw again the blinding flash of green light, more clearly than he had ever remembered it before — and he remembered something else, for the first time in his life: a high, cold, cruel laugh.**

Many gulped.

"Y-you remembered that?" Sirius gulped.

**Hagrid was watching him sadly.**

"**Took yeh from the ruined house myself, on Dumbledore's orders. Brought yeh ter this lot…."**

"**Load of old tosh," said Uncle Vernon. Harry jumped; he had almost forgotten that the Dursleys were there. Uncle Vernon certainly seemed to have got back his courage. He was glaring at Hagrid and his fists were clenched.**

"**Now, you listen here, boy," he snarled, "I accept there's something strange about you ,probably nothing a good beating wouldn't have cured**

**and as for all this about your parents, well, they were weirdoes, no denying it, and the world's better off without them in my opinion**

**asked for all they got, getting mixed up with these wizarding types — just what I expected, always knew they'd come to a sticky end -"**

**But at that moment, Hagrid leapt from the sofa and drew a battered pink umbrella from inside his coat.**

**Pointing this at Uncle Vernon like a sword, he said, "I'm warning you, Dursley — I'm warning you — one more word…"**

**In danger of being speared on the end of an umbrella by a bearded giant, Uncle Vernon's courage failed again; he flattened himself against the wall and fell silent.**

"**That's better," said Hagrid, breathing heavily and sitting back down on the sofa, which this time sagged right down to the floor.**

**Harry, meanwhile, still had questions to ask, hundreds of them.**

"**But what happened to Vol-, sorry — I mean, You-Know-Who?"**

Ron gasped. "You said You-know-who?!"

"Oh shut up mate." Harry laughed.

"**Good question, Harry. Disappeared. Vanished. Same night he tried ter kill you. Makes yeh even more famous. That's the biggest myst'ry, see… he was gettin' more an' more powerful — why'd he go?**

"**Some say he died. Codswallop, in my opinion. Dunno if he had enough human left in him to die.**

Many looked confused.

**Some say he's still out there, bidin' his time, like, but I don' believe it. People who was on his side came back ter ours. Some of 'em came outta kinda trances. Don' reckon they could've done if he was comin' back.**

"**Most of us reckon he's still out there somewhere but lost his powers. Too weak to carry on. 'Cause somethin' about you finished him, Harry. There was somethin' goin' on that night he hadn't counted on — **_**I **_**dunno what it was, no one does **— **but somethin' about you stumped him, all right."**

**Hagrid looked at Harry with warmth and respect blazing in his eyes, but Harry, instead of feeling pleased and proud, felt quite sure there had been a horrible mistake.**

**A wizard? Him? How could he possibly be? He'd spent his life being clouted by Dudley, and bullied by Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon; if he was really a wizard, why hadn't they been turned into warty toads every time they'd tried to lock him in his cupboard? If he'd once defeated the greatest sorcerer in the world, how come Dudley had always been able to kick him around like a football?**

Many more growls.

"**Hagrid," he said quietly, "I think you must have made a mistake. I don't think I can be a wizard."**

Everyone laughed.

**To his surprise, Hagrid chuckled.**

"**Not a wizard, eh? Never made things happen when you was scared or angry?"**

**Harry looked into the fire. Now he came to think about it… every odd thing that had ever made his aunt and uncle furious with him had happened when he, Harry, had been upset or angry… chased by Dudley's gang, he had somehow found himself out of their reach… dreading going to school with that ridiculous haircut, he'd managed to make it grow back… and the very last time Dudley had hit him, hadn't he got his revenge, without even realizing he was doing it? Hadn't he set a boa constrictor on him?**

"That was great by the way mate." Lee said.

**Harry looked back at Hagrid, smiling, and saw that Hagrid was positively beaming at him.**

"**See?" said Hagrid. "Harry Potter, not a wizard — you wait, you'll be right famous at Hogwarts."**

_"_Great..." He muttered.

**But Uncle Vernon wasn't going to give in without a fight.**

"**Haven't I told you he's not going?" he hissed. "He's going to Stonewall High and he'll be grateful for it. I've read those letters and he needs all sorts of rubbish — spell books and wands and —"**

"**If he wants ter go, a great Muggle like you won't stop him," growled Hagrid. "Stop Lily an' James Potter's son goin' ter Hogwarts! Yer mad. His name's been down ever since he was born.** **He's off ter the finest school of witchcraft and wizardry in the world.**

**Seven years there and he won't know himself. He'll be with youngsters of his own sort, fer a change, an' he'll be under the greatest headmaster Hogwarts ever had Albus Dumbled—"**

"**I AM NOT PAYING FOR SOME CRACKPOT OLD FOOL TO TEACH HIM MAGIC TRICKS!" yelled Uncle Vernon.**

"Oh he shouldn't have said that." Professor Sprout said.

**But he had finally gone too far. Hagrid seized his umbrella and whirled it over his head, "NEVER —" he thundered, "— INSULT — ALBUS — DUMBLEDORE — IN — FRONT — OF — ME!"**

**He brought the umbrella swishing down through the air to point at Dudley — there was a flash of violet light, a sound like a firecracker, a sharp squeal, and the next second, Dudley was dancing on the spot with his hands clasped over his fat bottom, howling in pain. When he turned his back on them, Harry saw a curly pig's tail poking through a hole in his trousers.**

Everyone but burst out laughing. Many cheered for Hagrid. It took five whole minutes to clam everyone down so Remus could read.

**Uncle Vernon roared. Pulling Aunt Petunia and Dudley into the other room, he cast one last terrified look at Hagrid and slammed the door behind them.**

**Hagrid looked down at his umbrella and stroked his beard.**

"**Shouldn'ta lost me temper," he said ruefully, "but it didn't work anyway. Meant ter turn him into a pig, but I suppose he was so much like a pig anyway there wasn't much left ter do."**

**He cast a sideways look at Harry under his bushy eyebrows.**

"**Be grateful if yeh didn't mention that ter anyone at Hogwarts," he said. "I'm — er — not supposed ter do magic, strictly speakin'. I was allowed ter do a bit ter follow yeh an' get yer letters to yeh an' stuff — one o' the reasons I was so keen ter take on the job."**

"**Why aren't you supposed to do magic?" asked Harry.**

"**Oh, well — I was at Hogwarts meself but I — er — got expelled, ter tell yeh the truth. In me third year. They snapped me wand in half an' everything. But Dumbledore let me stay on as gamekeeper. Great man, Dumbledore."**

"**Why were you expelled?"**

"**It's gettin' late and we've got lots ter do tomorrow," said Hagrid loudly. "Gotta get up ter town, get all yer books an' that."**

**He took off his thick black coat and threw it to Harry.**

"**You can kip under that," he said. "Don' mind if it wriggles a bit, I think I still got a couple o' doormice in one o' the pockets."**


	7. Note

**I'm so so so sorry about taking so long to update this. I have somethings going on and far behind on a lot of things.**


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